Page:All quiet along the Potomac and other poems.djvu/160

 154 IN THE NIGHT.

��IN THE NIGHT.

HOW the Unseen gathers round us, With its voiceless whisper low, When the deep and silent darkness Bids us seek ourselves to know Whence we are, and whither going

When this soul shall take its flight, Why this mystery and terror,

Why these whispers in the night !

When we fold aside our vesture,

Do our souls, unrobing too, Closer come to themes immortal,

Seeking there communion true ? Looking thus, with clearer vision,

Toward a ray of heavenly light, Do our spirits soar, untrammelled

By our bodies, in the night ?

Silently the stars above us

To the zenith come and pass ; Silently the dew of heaven

Leaves its crystals on the grass ; Silently the pale moon s crescent,

Dropping low, sinks out of sight ; And alone with God and darkness

We are thinking in the night

Thinking much of mortal treasures Which we may have lost or won,

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