Curfew

by Henry Wadsworth Longfellow

    I.

    Solemnly, mournfully,
        Dealing its dole,
    The Curfew Bell
        Is beginning to toll.

    Cover the embers,
        And put out the light;
    Toil comes with the morning,
        And rest with the night.

    Dark grow the windows,
        And quenched is the fire;
    Sound fades into silence,--
        All footsteps retire.

    No voice in the chambers,
        No sound in the hall!
    Sleep and oblivion
        Reign over all!


    II.

    The book is completed,
        And closed, like the day;
    And the hand that has written it
        Lays it away.

    Dim grow its fancies;
        Forgotten they lie;
    Like coals in the ashes,
        They darken and die.

    Song sinks into silence,
        The story is told,
    The windows are darkened,
        The hearth-stone is cold.

    Darker and darker
        The black shadows fall;
    Sleep and oblivion
        Reign over all.