Down the broad valley fast and far
  The troubled army fled;
Up rose the glorious morning star,
  The ghastly host was dead.

I have read, in the marvellous heart of man,
  That strange and mystic scroll,
That an army of phantoms vast and wan
  Beleaguer the human soul.

Encamped beside Life’s rushing stream,
  In Fancy’s misty light,
Gigantic shapes and shadows gleam
  Portentous through the night.

Upon its midnight battle-ground
  The spectral camp is seen,
And, with a sorrowful, deep sound,
  Flows the River of Life between.

No other voice nor sound is there,
  In the army of the grave;
No other challenge breaks the air,
  But the rushing of Life’s wave.

And when the solemn and deep churchbell
  Entreats the soul to pray,
The midnight phantoms feel the spell,
  The shadows sweep away.

Down the broad Vale of Tears afar
  The spectral camp is fled;
Faith shineth as a morning star,
  Our ghastly fears are dead.

MIDNIGHT MASS FOR THE DYING YEAR

Yes, the Year is growing old,
  And his eye is pale and bleared! 
Death, with frosty hand and cold,
  Plucks the old man by the beard,
       Sorely, sorely!

The leaves are falling, falling,
  Solemnly and slow;
Caw! caw! the rooks are calling,
  It is a sound of woe,
       A sound of woe!

Through woods and mountain passes
  The winds, like anthems, roll;
They are chanting solemn masses,
  Singing, “Pray for this poor soul,
       Pray, pray!”

And the hooded clouds, like friars,
  Tell their beads in drops of rain,
And patter their doleful prayers;
  But their prayers are all in vain,
       All in vain!

There he stands in the foul weather,
  The foolish, fond Old Year,
Crowned with wild flowers and with heather,
    Like weak, despised Lear,
       A king, a king!

Then comes the summer-like day,
  Bids the old man rejoice! 
His joy! his last!  O, the man gray
  Loveth that ever-soft voice,
       Gentle and low.

To the crimson woods he saith,
  To the voice gentle and low
Of the soft air, like a daughter’s breath,
  “Pray do not mock me so! 
       Do not laugh at me!”

And now the sweet day is dead;
  Cold in his arms it lies;
No stain from its breath is spread
  Over the glassy skies,
       No mist or stain!

Then, too, the Old Year dieth,
  And the forests utter a moan,
Like the voice of one who crieth
  In the wilderness alone,
       “Vex not his ghost!”

Then comes, with an awful roar,
  Gathering and sounding on,
The storm-wind from Labrador,
  The wind Euroclydon,
        The storm-wind!

Howl! howl! and from the forest
  Sweep the red leaves away! 
Would, the sins that thou abhorrest,
  O Soul! could thus decay,
       And be swept away! 
For there shall come a mightier blast,
  There shall be a darker day;