Often in the gusty darkness,

Of the last night of the year,
Have I heard your joyous voices
Echoing from far and near;
Now ye seem'd to fill the valleys
With a full, melodious flow,
Now to greet some distant mountain
Would your wind-borne music go.

Holy sounds were yours, and cheering
To each wanderer in the night,
Who, your joyous music hearing,
Thought his dark path streak'd with light;
And then, hill and valley leaving,
Your sweet notes pass'd out to sea,
Reach'd the vessel darkly heaving,
To the sailors peace brought ye;

Peace brought ye! to them recalling
Thoughts of cottage, homes and fires,
Shadows on their minds are falling

Of their loves, their friends, their sires:
One by one upon the waters,

Do the shades of dear ones fall, As when in the cheerful firelight

Shadows flicker on the wall.

THE SEA AT NIGHT.

I WALK upon the silver sand
Beside the solemn sea,

And lo! a quiet and holy calm
Comes stealing over me:

And the far-off waters breaking
Upon the distant strand,

Seem like a falling echo,

Of the sea-surge nigh at hand:

And the fleecy clouds keep passing Across the star-lit sky,

As the soft wing'd birds of passage Which to the warm South fly.

One headland in the distance

Enshrined in summer haze,

Casts its tall shadow forwards

Athwart the pale moon's rays:

Those rays which on the heaving bay Quiver with paly light,

As though the Ocean's lowest depths Were fill'd with beings bright.

But ah! why not? what men can tell
That earth, and air, and sea
Are not full-fill'd with angel-hosts,
Or spirits blest and free?

ΤΟ

My intercourse, dear friend, with thee
Had far too little of alloy

For this dull world of short-lived joy, For thou wert all in all to me.

Ofttimes when I with thee conversed,
I thought in secret in my heart
That thou and I too soon must part,
And lo! thou hast departed first.

Hadst thou remain❜d, I well may fear This world had been too dear to me;

But parted now, loved one, from thee,

The world is cold, and dim, and drear.

Yet still, although of thee, dear friend,
I wander on the earth bereft,
I have thy bright example left,
Abiding till my life doth end.

Yes, night by night, and day by day,
I love to think of thee as near,

And o'er a prospect dull and drear
Thy memory casts a glowing ray;

I hear thy voice, I see thee move,
Thy form still lingers in my sight,
And 'mid the darkness of earth's night
I glory that I owned thy love.