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.