Oh, for the time when I shall sleep

Is mocking at my overthrow!O, thy sweet tongue must plead for me,And tell why I have chosen thee!Stern Reason is to judgment come,Arrayed in all her forms of gloom:Wilt thou, my advocate, be dumb?No, radiant angel, speak and sayWhy I did cast the world away;Why I have presevered to shunThe common paths that others run,And…

Black mould beneath thee spread,And black mould to cover thee.‘Well—there is rest there,So fast come thy prophecy;The time when my sunny hairShall with grass roots entwined be.’But cold—cold is that resting-place,Shut out from joy and liberty,And all who loved thy living faceWill shrink from it shudderingly,‘Not so. Here the world is chill,And sworn friends fall…

While heaven and earth are whispering me,‘ Tomorrow, wake, but, dream to-night.’Yes, Fancy, come, my Fairy love!These throbbing temples softly kiss;And bend my lonely couch aboveAnd bring me rest, and bring me bliss.The world is going; dark world, adieu!Grim world, conceal thee till the day;The heart, thou canst not all subdue,Must still resist, if thou…

And lost and ready to despair,Thy kind voice calls me back again:Oh, my true friend! I am not lone,While thou canst speak with such a tone!So hopeless is the world without;The world within I doubly prize;Thy world, where guile, and hate, and doubt,And cold suspicion never rise;Where thou, and I, and Liberty,Have undisputed sovereignty.What matters…

No, the day has wept its fill,Spent its store of silent sorrow.O, I’m gone back to the days of youth,I am a child once more,And ‘neath my father’s sheltering roofAnd near the old hall doorI watch this cloudy evening fallAfter a day of rain;Blue mists, sweet mists of summer pallThe horizon’s mountain chain.The damp stands…

Strike again, Time’s withered branch dividingFrom the fresh root of Eternity!Leaves, upon Time’s branch, were growing brightly,Full of sap, and full of silver dew;Birds beneath its shelter gathered nightly;Daily round its flowers the wild bees flew.Sorrow passed, and plucked the golden blossom;Guilt stripped off the foliage in its pride;But, within its parent’s kindly bosom,Flowed for…