DARKLY the cloud of night comes rolling on; Darker is thy repose, my fair-haired son! Silent and dark! There is blood upon the threshold Whence thy step went forth at morn Like a dancer's in its fleetness, O my bright first-born! At the glad sound of that footstep My heart within me smiled; -- Thou wert brought me back all silent On thy bier, my child! Darkly the cloud of night comes rolling on; Darker is thy repose, my fair-haired son Silent and dark! I thought to see thy children Laugh on me with thine eyes; But my sorrow's voice is lonely Where my life's flower lies. I shall go to sit beside thee, Thy kindred's graves among; I shall hear the tall grass whisper -- I shall not hear it long. Darkly the cloud of night comes rolling on; Darker is thy repose, my fair-haired son! Silent and dark! And I, too, shall find slumber With my lost one in the earth; -- Let none light up the ashes Again on our hearth! Let the roof go down! -- let silence On the home for ever fall, Where my boy lay cold, and heard not His lone mother's call! Darkly the cloud of night comes rolling on; Darker is thy repose, my fair-haired son! Silent and dark! | Discover our Poem Explanations and Poet Analyses!Other Poems of Interest...TONE PICTURE (MALIPIERO: IMPRESSONI DAL VERO) by JEAN STARR UNTERMEYER LIFE by SAMUEL TAYLOR COLERIDGE I AM THE WAY' by ALICE MEYNELL THE BATTLE AUTUMN OF 1862 by JOHN GREENLEAF WHITTIER BACCHANALIA; OR, THE NEW AGE by MATTHEW ARNOLD |