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Home  »  library  »  poem  »  Oft, in the Stilly Night

C.D. Warner, et al., comp. The Library of the World’s Best Literature.
An Anthology in Thirty Volumes. 1917.

Oft, in the Stilly Night

By Thomas Moore (1779–1852)

OFT, in the stilly night,

Ere slumber’s chain has bound me,

Fond memory brings the light

Of other days around me;

The smiles, the tears,

Of boyhood’s years,

The words of love then spoken;

The eyes that shone.

Now dimmed and gone,

The cheerful hearts now broken!

Thus, in the stilly night,

Ere slumber’s chain has bound me,

Sad memory brings the light

Of other days around me.

When I remember all

The friends, so linked together,

I’ve seen around me fall

Like leaves in wintry weather,

I feel like one

Who treads alone

Some banquet-hall deserted,

Whose lights are fled,

Whose garlands dead,

And all but him departed!

Thus, in the stilly night,

Ere slumber’s chain has bound me,

Fond memory brings the light

Of other days around me.