Getting to Be That Time of Year

"Darkness":

There were four angels round my bed, I
With burning candlesticks outspread—
Two at my feet, two at my head.
They tricked the darkness of its dread,
          My four angels,
          My bright candles.

There came a man of vision clear,
He said: "The angels are not here,
They are phantoms born of fear.
I speak, and they will disappear—
          Those four angels,
          Those bright candles." 

Out they went, and there instead
Rolled the universe outspread
In tumbling terror round my head;
So that I go afraid to bed,
          With no angels,
          With no candles. 

Ruth Manning-Sanders.