CURFEW. I. SOLEMNLY, mournfully Is beginning to toll Cover the embers, And put out the light; Dark grow the windows, No voice in the chambers, No sound in the hall! Sleep and oblivion Reign over all! II. The book is completed, And closed, like the day; And the hand that has written it Lays it away. S Dim grow its fancies; They darken and die. Song sinks into silence, The windows are darkened, The hearth-stone is cold. Darker and darker The black shadows fall; Sleep and oblivion Reign over all. THE SEASIDE AND THE FIRESIDE. DEDICATION As one who, walking in the twilight gloom, So walking here in twilight, O my friends! If any thought of mine, or sung or told, Thanks for the sympathies that ye have shown That teaches me, when seeming most alone, Kind messages, that pass from land to land; One touch of fire, and all the rest is mystery! |