NIGHT THOUGHTS.

———

BY GIFTIE.

———

Darkness is on the wave,

The night wind hummeth low,

And through the soft bright air the gleams

Of moonlight come and go,

And all is hushed to rest

Upon Sleep’s quiet breast,

All save the human heart, that sighing waketh still —

The heart, that never sleeping —

Its lonely vigil keeping —

Findeth still naught on earth its depths to fill.

Thou art like Sleep, oh, Night!

Thou hast a thrilling power,

To awe, e’en with thy loveliest things,

The heart in this still hour.

Thou bringest up the past —

All bright things we have lost —

The dead whom we have loved look on us from the skies,

Yet naught of fear or wo,

That cloud man’s life below,

Is in the gaze of their calm spiritual eyes.

Ay—faces of the dead

Look downward from the sky.

They wear the same loved look and mien

They wore in days gone by,

Yet something dimly there.

Though cheek and brow be fair,

Says chillingly that human love hath passed away.

They care for us no more —

Those dwellers on the shore

Where night is lost in heaven’s effulgent day.

Still—all is still around;

I hear the sound of streams,

That through the long grass singing flow

Beneath the starlight beams

Thus let my soul repose,

Serene ’mid earthly woes,

Till death shall come and bid its longings cease,

Till I quench this weary thirst,

Where immortal fountains burst,

And heavenly voices welcome me to peace.