Read "A Book of Strife in the Form of the Diary of an Old Soul" by George MacDonald online for free on Textopian. Full text with search, annotations, highlights, and AI-powered reading aids.
1. ALAS, my tent! see through it a whirlwind sweep! Moaning, poor Fancy's doves are swept away. I sit alone, a sorrow half asleep, My consciousness the blackness all astir. No pilgrim I, a homeless wanderer -- For how canst Thou be in the darkness deep, Who dwellest only in the living day?
2. It must be, somewhere in my fluttering tent, Strange creatures, half tamed only yet, are pent -- Dragons, lop-winged birds, and large-eyed snakes! Hark! through the storm the saddest howling breaks! Or are they loose, roaming about the bent, The darkness dire deepening with moan and scream? -- My Morning, rise, and all shall be a dream.