The Earth Laments for Day

Theres music wafting on the air,     The evening winds are sighing     Among the trees and yonder stream     Is mournfully replying,     Lamenting loud the sunny light     That in the west is dying.     The moon is rising oer the hill,     Her slanting rays are creeping     Where Nature lies profoundly still     In happy quiet sleeping,     And resting on her face, theyll find     The earth is wet with weeping.     She mourneth for the lovely day,     Now deep in darkness shaded;     She sheds the dewy tear because     Of mornings mantle faded;     She misses from her breast the garb     In which the moon arrayd it.     The evening queen will strive in vain     To break the spell which bound her;     A million stars can never throw     Departed warmth around her;     They all must pass away and leave     The earth as they had found her.     But why should gentle Nature weep     That night has overtaken     The wearied world that needed sleep,     Refreshed to re-awaken,     So richer light might burst around,     The gloomy shadows breaking?     Oh, can she not from yonder sky     That gleams above her, borrow     A single ray, or find a way     To check the tear of sorrow?     A beam of hope would last her till     The dawning of to-morrow.