Twilight

Twilight

There is an evening twilight of the heart,

When its wild passion-waves are lulled to rest,

And the eye sees life's fairy scenes depart,

As fades the day beam in the rosy west.

'Tis with a nameless feeling of regret

We gaze upon them as they melt away,

And fondly would we bid them linger yet,

But Hope is round us with her angel lay,

Hailing afar some happier moonlight hour:

Dear are her whispers still, tho' lost her early power.

Is youth the cheek was crimsoned with her glow;

Her smile was loveliest then; her matin song

Was heaven's own music, and the note of woe

Was all unheard her sunny bowers among.

Life's little world of bliss was newly born;

We knew not, cared not, it was born to die:

Flushed with the cold breeze and the dews of morn,

With dancing heart we gazed on the pure sky,

And mocked the passing cloud that dimmed its blue,

Like our own sorrows then - as fleeting and as few.

And manhood felt her sway too - on the eye,

Half realized, her early dreams burst bright,

Her promised bower of happiness seemed nigh,

Its days of joy, its vigils of delight;

And though at times might lower the thunder storm,

And the red lightnings threaten, still the air

Was balmy with her breath, and her loved form,

The rainbow of the heart, was hovering there.

'Tis in life's noontide she is nearest seen,

Her wreath the summer flower, her robe of summer green.

But though less dazzling in her twilight dress,

There's more of heaven's pure beam about her now;

That angel smile of tranquil loveliness,

Which the heart worships, glowing on her brow;

That smile shall brighten the dim evening star,

That points our destin'd tomb, nor e'er depart

Till the faint light of life is fled afar,

And hushed the last deep beating of the heart,

The meteor-bearer of our parting breath,

A moonbeam in the midnight cloud of death.

Fitz Green Halleck

New Series 1:8, p. 4

1840.04.25