Evening Republican, Volume 21, Number 133, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 13 June 1918 — HYMN TO THE NIGHT [ARTICLE]

HYMN TO THE NIGHT

I heard the trailing garment* of the night Sweep through her marble hall*! I »aw her sable skirts all fringed with light From the celestial walls! I felt her presence, by it* spell of might. Stoop o'er me from above; , * The calm, majestic presence of the night, A* 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. FYom the cool cisterns of the midnight air My spirit drank repose; The fountain of perpetual peace flows there— From those deep cisterns floes. 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 breathe this prayer! Descend with broad-winged flight. The welcome, the thrice-prayed for, ths most fair, The best belowed night. . —Longfellow.