Visions of childhood!  Stay, O stay! 
  Ye were so sweet and wild! 
And distant voices seemed to say,
“It cannot be!  They pass away! 
Other themes demand thy lay;
  Thou art no more a child!

“The land of Song within thee lies,
  Watered by living springs;
The lids of Fancy’s sleepless eyes
Are gates unto that Paradise,
Holy thoughts, like stars, arise,
  Its clouds are angels’ wings.

“Learn, that henceforth thy song shall be,
  Not mountains capped with snow,
Nor forests sounding like the sea,
Nor rivers flowing ceaselessly,
Where the woodlands bend to see
  The bending heavens below.

“There is a forest where the din
  Of iron branches sounds! 
A mighty river roars between,
And whosoever looks therein
Sees the heavens all black with sin,
  Sees not its depths, nor bounds.

“Athwart the swinging branches cast,
  Soft rays of sunshine pour;
Then comes the fearful wintry blast
Our hopes, like withered leaves, fail fast;
Pallid lips say, ’It is past! 
  We can return no more!,

“Look, then, into thine heart, and write! 
  Yes, into Life’s deep stream! 
All forms of sorrow and delight,
All solemn Voices of the Night,
That can soothe thee, or affright,—­
  Be these henceforth thy theme.”

HYMN TO THE NIGHT.

[Greek quotation]

I heard the trailing garments of the Night
     Sweep through her marble halls! 
I saw her sable skirts all fringed with light
     From the celestial walls!

I felt her presence, by its spell of might,
     Stoop o’er me from above;
The calm, majestic presence of the Night,
     As of the one I love.

I heard the sounds of sorrow and delight,
     The manifold, soft chimes,
That fill the haunted chambers of the Night
     Like some old poet’s rhymes.

From the cool cisterns of the midnight air
     My spirit drank repose;
The fountain of perpetual peace flows there,—­
     From those deep cisterns flows.

O holy Night! from thee I learn to bear
     What man has borne before! 
Thou layest thy finger on the lips of Care,
     And they complain no more.

Peace!  Peace!  Orestes-like I breathe this prayer! 
     Descend with broad-winged flight,
The welcome, the thrice-prayed for, the most fair,
     The best-beloved Night!

A PSALM OF LIFE.  WHAT THE HEART OF THE YOUNG MAN SAID TO THE PSALMIST.

Tell me not, in mournful numbers,
  Life is but an empty dream! 
For the soul is dead that slumbers,
  And things are not what they seem.

Life is real!  Life is earnest! 
  And the grave is not its goal;
Dust thou art, to dust returnest,
  Was not spoken of the soul.