Poems (Chitwood)/Evening Thoughts
EVENING THOUGHTS.
O earth! thou art most beautiful;— As I look forth to-night,The sky is fleeced with fairy clouds, Tinged with a pale light; And the crescent moon is shining All gloriously bright.
All quietly and sweetly The flowers are folded now,With dewy gems upon their hearts, And blushes on their brow,While wind-harps thrill melodiously In every forest bough.
My full heart gushes over With strange and mournful flow;And mystic memory leads me Back to the long ago,Ere came a shadow o'er my soul— An undertone of woe.
I do not weep that swiftly My barque of life floats on;I would not if I could return To childhood's brightning dawn—I would not taste again the bliss Of hours forever gone.
Oh no! each revolution Of Time's ne'er ceasing wheelBrings but the light and shadows That every heart must feel—As the goddess of the future Her changes doth reveal.
Earth, earth, thou art most beautiful, Yet sorrow dwelleth here;The thorn crown presseth heavily While falls affections tear;And the brightest path hath something To make a mortal drear.
Oh, earth, thou art most beautiful; But lovelier the sky;Each woe below but fits us For journeying on high;—If earth were all a paradise, We would not wish to die.