What dost thou see with thy clear eyes, O Night?
How many sinful ones upon this earth
Who curse the very hour that gave them birth;
How many who, with passionate lips and white,
Kneel, praying for the old dear, lost delight;
How many lonely breasts sob low and deep;
How many sleeping, dream, and dreaming, weep—
How many, sleepless, count the slow hours’ flight,
And long for the first yellow flush of dawn?
How many look through cruel prison bars
At the wide purple air and silver stars?
How many souls, since thou last watched, have gone
Into some other where—all rest and light?. . .
What does thou see with thy clear eyes, O Night?
“What Dost Thou See, O Night?” as it appears in Higginson’s When the Birds Go North Again (1898).
A draft of “What Dost Thou See, O Night?” courtesy of the Ella Higginson Papers, Center for Pacific Northwest Studies, Heritage Resources, Western Washington University, Bellingham WA.
This poem also appeared in a 1994 issue of Fantasy Macabre, a Gothic literary magazine based in Seattle.
“What Dost Thou See, O Night?” as it appears in Fantasy Macabre #16 (1994).