Henry Wadsworth Longfellow, ed. Poems of Places: An Anthology in 31 Volumes.
England: Vols. I–IV. 1876–79.
Fountains Abbey
By AnonymousA
Where never now the vespers ring,
But lonely at the midnight hours
Flits by the bat on dusky wing.
No more beneath the planet ray,
Those arches echo with the hymn
That bears life’s meaner cares away.
With windows of the sculptured stone,
By sign of cross and sound of bell,
The world-worn heart can beat alone.
Let many a weary one attest,
Who turns from life’s impatient race,
And asks for nothing but for rest.
Still longer o’er the troubled wave,
Would thankful turn to such a home,—
A home already half a grave.