NIGHT AND MORNING
I.
Night and darkness over all!
Nature sleeps beneath a pall;
Not a ray from moon or stars
Glimmers through the cloudy bars;
Huge and black the mountains stand
Frowning upon either hand,
And the river, dark and deep,
Gropes its way from steep to steep.
Yonder tree, whose young leaves played
In the sunshine and the shade,
Stretches out its arms like one
Sudden blindness hath undone.
Pale and dim the rose-queen lies
Robbed of all her gorgeous dyes,
And the lily bendeth low,
Mourner in a garb of woe.
Never a shadow comes or goes,
Never a gleam its glory throws
Over cottage or over hall—
Darkness broodeth over all!
Nature sleeps beneath a pall;
Not a ray from moon or stars
Glimmers through the cloudy bars;
Huge and black the mountains stand
Frowning upon either hand,
And the river, dark and deep,
Gropes its way from steep to steep.
Yonder tree, whose young leaves played
In the sunshine and the shade,
Stretches out its arms like one
Sudden blindness hath undone.
Pale and dim the rose-queen lies
Robbed of all her gorgeous dyes,
And the lily bendeth low,
Mourner in a garb of woe.
Never a shadow comes or goes,
Never a gleam its glory throws
Over cottage or over hall—
Darkness broodeth over all!
II.
Lo! the glorious morning breaks!
Nature from her sleep awakes,
And, in purple pomp, the day
Bids the darkness flee away.
Nature from her sleep awakes,
And, in purple pomp, the day
Bids the darkness flee away.
