For he has fallen fast asleep
  And cannot give me moan for moan—­
  My heart is heavy as a stone
And there is no one left to weep! 
My soul is heavy and doth lie
  Reaching up from my wretchedness—­
  Reaching up blindly for redress
The stern gray walls of entity!

Once in the golden spring-time hours,
  In the sweet garden of my youth,
  There fell a seed of bitter truth
That sprang and shadowed all the flowers—­
Alone!  The roses died apace
  And pale the mournful violet blew—­
  Only the royal lily grew
And glorified the lonesome place!

In me the growth of human ills
  Than human love had reached no higher,
  But Seraphim with lips of fire
Have won me to the shining hills—­
I cannot hide my soul in art—­
  I cannot mend my life’s defect—­
  This thunderous space of intellect
God gave me for a peaceful heart!

Hush! oh, my mournful heart, be still,
  The heavy night is coming on,
  But heavier lie the shadows drawn
About his grave so low and chill—­
From out the awful sphere of God,
  Oh, deathly wind, blow soft and low! 
  My soul is weary and would go
Where never foot of mortal trod!

AT THE NIGHTFALL.

I muse alone in the fading light,
  Where the mournful winds forever
Sweep down from the dim old hills of night,
  Like the wail of a haunted river.

Alone! by the grave of a buried love,
  The ghostly mist is parted,
Where the stars shine faint in the blue above,
  Like the smile of the broken-hearted.

The living turn from my fond embrace,
  As if no love were needed;
The tears I wept on thy young dead face
  Were never more unheeded

Than my wild prayer for peace unwon—­
  One pure affection only,
One faithful heart to lean upon,
  When life is sad and lonely.

The low grassy roof, my glorious dead,
  Is bright with the buttercup’s blossom,
And the night-blooming roses burn dimly and red
  On the green sod that covers thy bosom.

Thy pale hands are folded, oh beautiful saint,
  Like lily-buds chilly and dew-wet,
And the smile on thy lip is as solemn and faint
  As the beams of a norland sunset.

The angel that won thee a long time ago
  To the shore of the glorious immortals,
In the sphere of the starland shall wed us, I know,
  When I pass through the beautiful portals.

THE MIDNIGHT CHIME.

    Suggested by the tolling of the bell on the sash factory in Port
    Deposit on a stormy night in January, 1856.

The rain is the loudest and wildest
  Of rains that ever fell;
And the winds like an army of chanters
  Through the desolate pine-woods swell,
And hark! through the shout of the tempest,
  The sound of the midnight bell.