NIGHT.

O gentle Night! O thought-inspiring Night! Humbly I bow before thy sovereign power; Sadly I own thy all-unequalled might To calm weak mortal in his darkest hour: Spreading thy robe o’er all the mass of care, Thou bidd’st the sorrowful no more despair. When high in heaven thou bidd’st thy torches shine, Casting on earth a holy, peaceful light, My heart adores thee in thy calm divine, Is soothed by thee, O hope-inspiring Night! All anxious thoughts, all evil bodings fly; My soul doth rest, since thou, O Night! art nigh. When thou hast cast o’er all the sleeping land Thy darkened robe, the symbol of thy state, Alone beneath heaven’s mightiness I stand, Musing on life, eternity, and fate; Mayhap with concentrated thought I try To pierce the cloud of heaven’s great mystery. ’Tis then sweet music in the air I hear, Like rippling waters falling soft and low; With soul enraptured do I list, yet fear— ’Tis not such music as we mortals know; It wafts the soul from earthly things away, Leaving behind the senseless frame of clay. Friends, kindly faces crowd around me there, Friends loved the better since they passed away, Leaving a legacy of wild despair— And now I see them as in full orb’d day, The long-lamented once again descry, Bask in each smile, gaze in each speaking eye. O blest reunion, Night’s almighty gift, Lent for a time unto the thoughtful mind; When memory can o’er the clouds uplift The startled soul away from all mankind, Throw wide eternity’s majestic gate, And grant a view of the immortal state. And thou, O Night! who can’st these spirits raise, Giv’st immortality to mortal eyes, To thee I tune mine unadornèd praise, And chant thy glories to the list’ning skies: Waft, O ye winds! the floating notes along; Ye woods and mountains, echo back the song. Robert A. Neilson.