Louisa Stuart Costello

Lines (I cannot sleep—my nights glide on)

I cannot sleep—my nights glide on
    In one unbroken thought of thee;
And when the gloomy shades are gone,
    I start the dawning light to see.

And as I watch the rising morn
    Gain slowly o'er the yielding sky,
And mark another day new born,
    That glows so brightly—yet must die—

I think how all the hopes we cherish
    As transient, though as bright, will be;
And frailest of the hopes that perish
    Were mine, that told of love and thee!