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. 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 Kind messages, that pass from land to land; One touch of fire,—and all the rest is mystery! |