TO NIGHT.
Come, solemn Night, and spread thy pallWide o’er the slumbering shore and sea,And hang along thy vaulted hallThe star-lights of eternity;Thy beacons, beautiful and bright—Isles in the ocean of the blest—That guide the parted spirit’s flightUnto the land of rest.Come—for the evening glories fade,Quenched in the ocean’s depths profound;Come with thy solitude and shade,Thy silence and thy sound;Awake the deep and lonely layFrom wood and stream, of saddening tone;The harmonies unheard by day,The music all thine own!And with thy starry eyes that weepTheir silent dews on flower and tree,My heart shall solemn vigils keep—My thoughts converse with thee;Upon whose glowing page expandThe revelations of the sky;Which knowledge teach to every land,Of man’s high destiny.For while the mighty orbs of fire(So “wildly bright” they seem to live)Feel not the beauty they inspire,Nor see the light they give;Even I, an atom of the earth—Itself an atom ’midst the frameOf nature—can inquire their birth,And ask them whence they came.
Come, solemn Night, and spread thy pallWide o’er the slumbering shore and sea,And hang along thy vaulted hallThe star-lights of eternity;Thy beacons, beautiful and bright—Isles in the ocean of the blest—That guide the parted spirit’s flightUnto the land of rest.Come—for the evening glories fade,Quenched in the ocean’s depths profound;Come with thy solitude and shade,Thy silence and thy sound;Awake the deep and lonely layFrom wood and stream, of saddening tone;The harmonies unheard by day,The music all thine own!And with thy starry eyes that weepTheir silent dews on flower and tree,My heart shall solemn vigils keep—My thoughts converse with thee;Upon whose glowing page expandThe revelations of the sky;Which knowledge teach to every land,Of man’s high destiny.For while the mighty orbs of fire(So “wildly bright” they seem to live)Feel not the beauty they inspire,Nor see the light they give;Even I, an atom of the earth—Itself an atom ’midst the frameOf nature—can inquire their birth,And ask them whence they came.
Come, solemn Night, and spread thy pallWide o’er the slumbering shore and sea,And hang along thy vaulted hallThe star-lights of eternity;Thy beacons, beautiful and bright—Isles in the ocean of the blest—That guide the parted spirit’s flightUnto the land of rest.
Come, solemn Night, and spread thy pall
Wide o’er the slumbering shore and sea,
And hang along thy vaulted hall
The star-lights of eternity;
Thy beacons, beautiful and bright—
Isles in the ocean of the blest—
That guide the parted spirit’s flight
Unto the land of rest.
Come—for the evening glories fade,Quenched in the ocean’s depths profound;Come with thy solitude and shade,Thy silence and thy sound;Awake the deep and lonely layFrom wood and stream, of saddening tone;The harmonies unheard by day,The music all thine own!
Come—for the evening glories fade,
Quenched in the ocean’s depths profound;
Come with thy solitude and shade,
Thy silence and thy sound;
Awake the deep and lonely lay
From wood and stream, of saddening tone;
The harmonies unheard by day,
The music all thine own!
And with thy starry eyes that weepTheir silent dews on flower and tree,My heart shall solemn vigils keep—My thoughts converse with thee;Upon whose glowing page expandThe revelations of the sky;Which knowledge teach to every land,Of man’s high destiny.
And with thy starry eyes that weep
Their silent dews on flower and tree,
My heart shall solemn vigils keep—
My thoughts converse with thee;
Upon whose glowing page expand
The revelations of the sky;
Which knowledge teach to every land,
Of man’s high destiny.
For while the mighty orbs of fire(So “wildly bright” they seem to live)Feel not the beauty they inspire,Nor see the light they give;Even I, an atom of the earth—Itself an atom ’midst the frameOf nature—can inquire their birth,And ask them whence they came.
For while the mighty orbs of fire
(So “wildly bright” they seem to live)
Feel not the beauty they inspire,
Nor see the light they give;
Even I, an atom of the earth—
Itself an atom ’midst the frame
Of nature—can inquire their birth,
And ask them whence they came.