The night was dark yet winter breathed

The night was dark yet winter breathed

With softened sighs on heaven's shore

And though its wind repining breathed

It chained the snow swollen streams no more

How deep into the wilderness

My horse has strayed I cannot say

But neither morsel nor caress

Would urge him further on the way

So loosening from his neck the rein

I set my worn companion free

And billowy hill and boundless plain

Full soon departed him from me

The sullen clouds lay all unbroken

And blackening round the horizon drear

But still they gave no certain token

Of heavy rain or tempests near

I paused confounded and distressed

Down in the heath my limbs I threw

Yet wilder as I longed for rest

More wakeful heart and eyelids grew

It was about the middle night

And under such a starless dome

When gliding from the mountains height

I saw a shadowy figure come

This is my home where whirlpools blow

Where snowdrifts round my path are swelling

'Tis many a year 'tis long ago

Since I beheld another dwelling

The shepherd has died on the mountainside

But my ready aid was near him then

I led him back o'er the hidden track

And gave him to his native glen

When tempests roar on the lonely shore

I light my beacon with sea-weeds dry

And it flings its fire through the darkness dire

And gladdens the sailor's hopeless eye

And deem thou not that quite forgot

My mercy will forsake me now

I bring thee care and not despair

Abasement but not overthrow

To a silent home thy foot may come

And years may follow of toilsome pain

But yet I swear by that burning tear

The loved shall meet on its hearth again