Poem by Henry Wadsworth Longfellow

Curfew

            I

SOLEMNLY, mournfully,
    Dealing its dole, 
The Curfew Bell
    Is beginning to toll.

Cover the embers,
    Aand put out the light; 
Toil comes with morning,
    And rest with the night.

Dark grow the windows,
    And quenched is the fire; 
Sound fades into silence,--
    All footsteps retire.

No voice in the chambers,
    No sound in the hall! 
Sleep and oblivion
    Reign over all!

            II

The book is completed,
    And closed, like the day; 
And the hand that has written it
    Lays it away.

Dim grow its fancies;
    Forgotten they lie; 
Like coals in the ashes,
    They darken and die.

Song sinks into silence,
    The story is told, 
The windows are darkened,
    The hearth-stone is cold.

Darker and darker
    The black shadows fall, 
Sleep and oblivion
    Reign over all. 

1. The Crew of the Long Serpent
2. Something Left Undone
3. The Four Princesses at Wilna
4. God's Acre
5. Seaweed

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