Poems (Ripley)/Hymn to the Night
HYMN TO THE NIGHT
Fair closer of the gates of daily toil; Fair curtain lowered across the garish day; Fair banisher of cares and weariness; Oh fair oasis on life's desert way!
Fair bringer out of moon and starry fay; Fair spreader of the night-moth's velvet wing; Fair wafter forth of the Hermit Thrush's song; Fair author of the fireflies' lightening.
Oh fair transfigurer of mother earth! Thou closeth up the daisies' eyes in sleep, And foldeth the wild rose into buds again And maketh all the sky a purple deep.
Thou openeth all the evening primroses, And turn them to the moon like starry eyes.—And in every lake and diamond pool, the stars Reflect themselves, like flowers in golden guise.—
And to the heart of man thou bringest peace; The world of actual things slips quite away,—And the ideal—which is the real—comes forth And over him does hold delightful sway.
When earth was young, methinks thou wert more fair: When Eve and Adam, in undisputed sway Ruled Eden, and God to that fair spot divine, In the cool, sweet dusk of evening, made His way.