An Evening Song of Piedmont

Aye Maria! 't is the midnight hour,
The starlight wedding of the earth and heaven,
When music breathes its perfume from the flower,
And high revealings to the heart are given;
Soft o'er the meadows steals the dewy air —
Like dreams of bliss; the deep-blue ether glows,
And the stream murmurs round its islets fair
The tender night-song of a charm'd repose.

Ave Maria! 't is the hour of love,
The kiss of rapture, and the link'd embrace,
The hallow'd converse in the dim, still grove,
The elysium of a heart-revealing face,
When all is beautiful — for we are bless'd,
When all is lovely — for we are beloved,
When all is silent — for our passions rest,
When all is faithful — for our hopes are proved.

Ave Maria! 't is the hour of prayer,
Of hush'd communion with ourselves and Heaven,
When our waked hearts their inmost thoughts declare,
High, pure, far-searching, like the light of even;
When hope becomes fruition, and we feel
The holy earnest of eternal peace,
That bids our pride before the Omniscient kneel,
That bids our wild and warring passions cease.

Ave Maria! soft the vesper hymn
Floats through the cloisters of yon holy pile,
And, mid the stillness of the night-watch dim,
Attendant spirits seem to hear and smile!
Hark! hath it ceased? The vestal seeks her cell,
And reads her heart — a melancholy tale!
A song of happier years, whose echoes swell
O'er her lost love, like pale bereavement's wail.

Ave Maria! let our prayers ascend
From them whose holy offices afford
No joy in heaven — on earth without a friend —
That true, though faded image of the Lord!
For them in vain the face of nature glows,
For them in vain the sun in glory burns,
The hollow breast consumes in fiery woes,
And meets despair and death where'er it turns.

Ave Maria! in the deep pine wood,
On the clear stream, and o'er the azure sky
Bland midnight smiles, and starry solitude
Breathes hope in every breeze that wanders by.
Ave Maria! may our last hour come
As bright, as pure, as gentle, Heaven! as this!
Let faith attend us smiling to the tomb,
And life and death are both the heirs of bliss!