Henry Wadsworth Longfellow (1807–1882). Complete Poetical Works. 1893.
The Belfry of Bruges and Other PoemsCurfew
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!
The book is completed,
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.