To Night

I.

WIFTLY walk over the western

wave,

Spirit of Night!

Out of the misty eastern cave,

Where all the long and lone daylight,
Thou wovest dreams of joy and fear,
Which make thee terrible and dear,-
Swift be thy flight!

II.

Wrap thy form in a mantle gray,
Star-inwrought!

Blind with thine hair the eyes of Day;

Kiss her until she be wearied out,

Then wander o'er city, and sea, and land,

Touching all with thine opiate wand

Come, long sought!

III.

When I arose and saw the dawn,

I sighed for thee;

When light rode high, and the dew was gone,

And noon lay heavy on flower and tree,

And the weary Day turned to his rest,

Lingering like an unloved guest,
I sighed for thee.

IV.

Thy brother Death came, and cried,
Wouldst thou me?

Thy sweet child Sleep, the filmy-eyed,
Murmured like a noontide bee,

Shall I nestle near thy side?

Wouldst thou me? And I replied,
No, not thee!

Of neither would I ask the boon

I ask of thee, belovèd Night—
Swift be thine approaching flight,
Come soon, soon!

A Lament

I.

WORLD! O life! O time!
On whose last steps I climb
Trembling at that where I had

stood before;

When will return the glory of your prime?
No more Oh, never more!

II.

Out of the day and night

A joy has taken flight;

Fresh spring, and summer, and winter hoar, Move my faint heart with grief, but with delight

No more Oh, never more!

Fragment:

"And That I Walk Thus Proudly

Crowned"

ND that I walk thus proudly crowned withal

Is that 'tis my distinction; if I

fall,

I shall not weep out of the vital day,
To-morrow dust, nor wear a dull decay.

Fragment: "The Rude
Wind Is Singing"

The rude wind is singing
The dirge of the music dead,
The cold worms are clinging
Where kisses were lately fed.

AR, far away, O ye

Halcyons of memory,

Seek some far calmer nest

Than this abandoned breast;

No news of your false spring

High in the Future's towers,

Withered hopes on hopes are spread,

Dying joys choked by the dead

Will serve your beaks for prey
Many a day.