Edmund Clarence Stedman, ed. (1833–1908). An American Anthology, 1787–1900. 1900.
By Henry WadsworthLongfellow193 Curfew
S
Dealing its dole,
The Curfew Bell
Is beginning to toll.
And put out the light;
Toil comes with the morning,
And rest with the night.
And quenched is the fire;
Sound fades into silence,—
All footsteps retire.
No sound in the hall!
Sleep and oblivion
Reign over all!
And closed, like the day;
And the hand that has written it
Lays it away.
Forgotten they lie;
Like coals in the ashes,
They darken and die.
The story is told,
The windows are darkened,
The hearth-stone is cold.
The black shadows fall;
Sleep and oblivion
Reign over all.