I've watched too late; the morn is near; <br />One look at God's broad silent sky! <br />Oh, hopes and wishes vainly dear, <br />How in your very strength ye die! <br /> <br />Even while your glow is on the cheek, <br />And scarce the high pursuit begun, <br />The heart grows faint, the hand grows weak, <br />The task of life is left undone. <br /> <br />See where upon the horizon's brim, <br />Lies the still cloud in gloomy bars; <br />The waning moon, all pale and dim, <br />Goes up amid the eternal stars. <br /> <br />Late, in a flood of tender light, <br />She floated through the ethereal blue, <br />A softer sun, that shone all night <br />Upon the gathering beads of dew. <br /> <br />And still thou wanest, pallid moon! <br />The encroaching shadow grows apace; <br />Heaven's everlasting watchers soon <br />Shall see thee blotted from thy place. <br /> <br />Oh, Night's dethroned and crownless queen! <br />Well may thy sad, expiring ray <br />Be shed on those whose eyes have seen <br />Hope's glorious visions fade away. <br /> <br />Shine thou for forms that once were bright, <br />For sages in the mind's eclipse, <br />For those whose words were spells of might, <br />But falter now on stammering lips! <br /> <br />In thy decaying beam there lies <br />Full many a grave on hill and plain, <br />Of those who closed their dying eyes <br />In grief that they had lived in vain. <br /> <br />Another night, and thou among <br />The spheres of heaven shalt cease to shine, <br />All rayless in the glittering throng <br />Whose lustre late was quenched in thine. <br /> <br />Yet soon a new and tender light <br />From out thy darkened orb shall beam, <br />And broaden till it shines all night <br />On glistening dew and glimmering stream.<br /><br />William Cullen Bryant<br /><br />http://www.poemhunter.com/poem/the-waning-moon-3/
