Night

My heart is placid as the lake

Which softly flows 'neath starlit skies.

And, as I walk, faint melodies of night,

Of things but half awake,

Stand soothing to its very deeps;

It thrills and starts while mankind sleeps.

The gentle murmur of the lake

Is silvered by a fountain's play.

A nightbird sings its tuneful lay

Full of the night's vast joy and ache.

A low wind sighs thru ghostly trees

Which shiver in the dancing breeze.