Voices of the Night

Pleasant it was, when woods were green, And winds were soft and low, To lie amid some sylvan scene, Where, the long drooping boughs between, Shadows dark and sunlight sheen Alternate come and go;

Or, where the denser grove receives No sunlight from above, But the dark foliage interweaves In one unbroken roof of leaves, Underneath whose sloping eaves The shadows hardly move.

Beneath some patriarchal tree, I lay upon the ground; His hoary arms uplifted he, And all the broad leaves over me Clapped their little hands in glee, With one continuous sound;—

A slumberous sound,—a sound that brings The feelings of a dream,— As of innumerable wings; As, when a bell no longer swings, Faint the hollow murmur rings O’er meadow, lake, and stream.