| |
| TO break the stillness of the hour | |
| There is no sound, no voice, no stir; | |
| Only the croak of frogs,—the whirr | |
| Of crickets hidden in leaf and flower. | |
| |
| The clear-cut outlines of a spire | 5 |
| Spring from a mass of eucalypt | |
| Sharply against the sky,—still tipped | |
| With one last gleam of lingering fire. | |
| |
| So solemnly the shadows creep; | |
| On dovelike wings Night flutters down; | 10 |
| Lights twinkle in the little town; | |
| The valley lies in quiet sleep. | |
| |
| So comes the dark, so fades the light, | |
| On all those leagues of tossing sea | |
| That lie between my home and me, | 15 |
| And glimmer to the stars all night. | |
| |
| And so, belovèd, silently | |
| In thine own land the shadows fall | |
| On grassy lawn, and garden-wall, | |
| On shining sand, and troubled sea,— | 20 |
| |
| On paths thy feet shall never tread,— | |
| On fields thine eyes shall never see,— | |
| And on thy new home, strange to me, | |
| That silent City of the Dead! | |
| |
| Yea, stillness rests, O Tried and True, | 25 |
| On hand and heart, on lips and eyes! | |
| On thee eternal silence lies, | |
| On thee is utter darkness too. | |
| |
| We lost too much in losing thee, | |
| Yet we who knew and loved thee best, | 30 |
| Wish thee an everlasting rest, | |
| Night came on thee so quietly. | |
| |
| Peace with the Shadows! Peace to all | |
| Who work and weep, who pray and wait; | |
| Till we and thou are one with Fate, | 35 |
| And on us too, the Night shall fall! | |
| |
