| |
| FAR from the earth the deep-descended day | |
| Lies dim in hidden sanctuaries of sleep. | |
| The wingèd winds couched on the threshold keep | |
| Uneasy watch, and still expectant stay | |
| The voice that bids their rushing host delay | 5 |
| No more to rise, and with tempestuous power | |
| Rend the wide veil of heaven. Long watching they | |
| Sigh in the silence of the midnight hour. | |
| |
| Hark! where the forests slow in slumber sway | |
| Below the blue wild ridges, steep on steep, | 10 |
| Thronging the sky—how shuddering as they leap | |
| The impetuous waters go their fated way, | |
| And mourn in mountain chasms, and as they stray | |
| By many a magic town and marble tower, | |
| As those that still unreconciled obey, | 15 |
| Sigh in the silence of the midnight hour. | |
| |
| Listen—the quiet darkness doth array | |
| The toiling earth, and there is time to weep— | |
| A deeper sound is mingled with the sweep | |
| Of streams and winds that whisper far away. | 20 |
| Oh listen! where the populous cities lay | |
| Low in the lap of sleep their ancient dower, | |
| The changeless spirit of our changeful clay | |
| Sighs in the silence of the midnight hour. | |
| |
| Sigh, watcher for a dawn remote and grey, | 25 |
| Mourn, journeyer to an undesirèd deep, | |
| Eternal sower, thou that shalt not reap, | |
| Immortal, whom the plagues of God devour. | |
| Mourn—’tis the hour when thou wert wont to pray. | |
| Sigh in the silence of the midnight hour. | 30 |
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