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380   SELECTED POETRY.

NIGHT.
1. Night is the time for rest: 
How sweet. when labors close, 
To gather round an aching breast 
The curtain of repose, 
Stretch the tired limbs, and lay the head 
Upon our own delightful bed!

2. Night is the time for dreams- 
The gay romance of life, 
When truth that is, and truth that seems, 
Blend in fantastic strife: 
Ah! visions less beguiling far, 
Than waking dreams by daylight are!

3. Night is the time for toil- 
To plough the classic field, 
Intent to find the buried spoil 
Its wealthy furrows yield; 
Till all is ours that sages taught, 
That poets sung, or heroes wrought.

4. Night is the time to weep- 
To wet with unseen tears 
Those graves of memory, where sleep 
The joys of other years- 
Hopes that were angels in their birth, 
But perished young, like things of earth.

5. Night is the time to watch- 
On ocean's dark expanse, 
To hail the Pleiades, or catch 
The full moon's earliest glance, 

SELECTED POETRY.   381

That brings into the homesick mind, 
All we have loved and left behind.

6. Night is the time for care-  
Brooding on hours misspent, 
To see the spectre of despair 
Come to our lonely tent; 
Like Brutus, mid his slumbering host, 
Startled by Cesar's stalworth ghost.

7. Night is the time to muse- 
Then from the eye the soul 
Takes flight, and, with expanding views, 
Beyond the starry pole, 
Descries, athwart the abyss of night, 
The dawn of uncreated light. 

8. Night is the time to pray- 
Our Saviour oft withdrew 
To desert mountains far away: 
So will his followers do- 
Steal from the throng to haunts untrod, 
And hold communion there with God.

9. Night is the time for death- 
When all around is peace, 
Calmly to yield the weary breath, 
From sin and suffering cease, 
Think of heaven's bliss, and give the sign 
To parting friends:- such death be mine!

J. MONTGOMERY.

Transcription Notes:
Poems are one of the situations in which you follow the line breaks on the page ---------- Reopened for Editing 2023-06-21 02:58:58 ---------- Reopened for Editing 2023-06-21 07:13:41 ---------- Reopened for Editing 2023-06-21 07:56:48