Hymn To The Night

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

I felt her presence, by it's spell of might
        Stop over 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 breath
        this prayer!
        Descend with broad-winged flight,
The welcome, the thrice-prayed for, the
        most fair,
        The best-beloved Night!