Lie still and mark
The comfort and the blessing of the dark
How gently in the hollow of its hand,
How quietly, it holds the trusting land,
The stars, the dreaming boughs, the folded wings.
Think on these things.

Remember long ago:
How, when the shadows used to gather slow,
You put your treasures down and faltered home,
Happy with play, but glad the dusk had come,
Your eyelids drooping in the sweet twilight--
Remember this tonight.

Be safe, be still.
When dawn shall wake you at your window-sill
There will be beauty in the morning's gold,
There will be strength for all the day shall hold;
But now the night has taken you, strong and deep,
So . . . sleep . . . .

This poem is in the public domain.