Night slowly stretches o'er the changing skies And killing darkness shrouds the rolling Earth Up to her well-known rock the night-owl hies And wizard hags begin their cursed mirth. A misty cloud bedims the rising moon Few are the stars that cheer the evening sky And dark and gloomy is the night; and soon The light that issues from those stars will die. This night, I deem, the moon is in her spell And fiends have mutter'd incantations dire This night in revelry, the hags of hell Dance in deep cave, around th'infernal fire Ah! bleakly blows the Ocean's stormy blast Grim Water-Sprites bestride the foaming wave, Woe to the hapless bark, the towering mast The careworn sailor finds tonight his Grave! On Ballans lonely moor what sounds were heard! When the chill night brought on the darkness drear And in thy lofty towers lone Villagird! What startling noise came sudden on the ear. I passed at eve the foot of Ben-lide's hill I heard a voice as the sad breeze blew by Starting I listened -- all again was still Nought through the mist could mortal sight descry. | Discover our Poem Explanations and Poet Analyses!Other Poems of Interest...IDLENESS by SILAS WEIR MITCHELL THE PORTRAIT by DANTE GABRIEL ROSSETTI FAREWELL, UNKIST by THOMAS WYATT WATER WOMAN by JOSEPH AUSLANDER LES HALLES D'YPRES by EDMUND CHARLES BLUNDEN THE MAN WHO RODE TO CONEMAUGH by JOHN ELIOT BOWEN |