IX + 

Night + 

After the fret and failure of this day, + 

And weariness of thought, O Mother Night, + 

Come with soft kiss to soothe our care away + 

And all our little tumults set to right; + 

Most pitiful of all death’s kindred fair, + 

Riding above us through the curtained air + 

On thy dusk car, thou scatterest to the earth + 

Sweet dreams and drowsy charms of tender might + 

And lovers’ dear delight before to-morrow’s birth. + 

Thus art thou wont thy quiet lands to leave + 

And pillared courts beyond the Milky Way + 

Wherein thou tarriest all our solar day + 

While unsubstantial dreams before thee weave + 

A foamy dance, and fluttering fancies play + 

About thy palace in the silver ray + 

Of some far, moony globe. But when the hour, + 

The long-expected comes, the ivory gates + 

Open on noiseless hinge before thy bower + 

Unbidden, and the jewelled chariot waits + 

With magic steeds. Thou from the fronting rim + 

Bending to urge them, whilst thy sea-dark hair + 

Falls in ambrosial ripples o’er each limb, + 

With beautiful pale arms, untrammelled, bare + 

For horsemanship to those twin chargers fleet + 

Dost give full reign across the fires that flow + 

In the wide floor of heaven, from off their feet + 

Scattering the powdery star-dust as they go. + 

Come swiftly down the sky, O Lady Night, + 

Fall through the shadow-country, O most kind, + 

Shake out thy strands of gentle dreams and light + 

For chains, wherewith thou still art used to bind + 

With tenderest love of careful leeches’ art + 

The bruised and weary heart + 

In slumber blind. + 