Transcription of the Poem
Twilight
There is an evening twilight of the heart,
When its wild passion-waves are lull’d
to rest
And the eye sees life’s fairy scenes depart,
As fades the daybeam 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,
Waiting after some happier moonlight hour,
Dear are her whispers still, though lost
their early power.
In youth the cheek was crimsoned with
her glow
Her smile was loveliest then, her matin
song
Was heaven’s own music, & the note of wo
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.
Flush’d with the cool breeze and the dews of morn
With dancing heart we gazed on the pure sky
And mocked the passing clouds that dimm’d its
blue,
Like our own sorrows then as fleeting & as few
And manhood felt her sway too—on the eye
Half realized her early dreams burst bright,
Her promised bower of happiness seem’d nigh,
Its days of joy, its vigils of delight,
And tho’ at times might lower the thunderstorms
And the red lightnings threaten; still the air
Was balmy with her breath, and her lov’d form
The rainbow of the heart was hov'ring there
’Tis in life’s noontide she is nearest seen
Her wreath the summer flower her robe the
summer green.
But tho’ 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 destined tomb, nor e’er
depart
‘Till the faint light of life is fled afar,
And hush’d the last deep beating of
the heart;
The meteor-bearer of our parting
breath,
A moonbeam in the midnight
cloud of death.
Fitzgreen Halleck.
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