What steals upon the midnight?

What steals upon the midnight?
What walks across the wave,
Where the moon's long light-path stretches o'er

The sailor's sullen grave,
Like a bridge that is built by angels,
The sinking soul to save!

One end at the ship-side resteth,
And one is held afar —
Far — far in the lands of heaven and home,

By the hand of the Evening Star:
And my thoughts travel over and linger
Where those that I love so are!

And then, in the stilly midnight,
Sweet forms come tripping o'er,
For I see at the end of that ray of light

My home on a pleasant shore,
And my dear one lonely and sad within,
And my child at the cottage-door.

Their eyes are turned towards me,
And I beckon them to my side;
I beckon them up with the pulse of my heart,

And they come o'er the ocean wide,
On that delicate path that the angels made
For the feet of my sorrowing bride.

And she sitteth here beside me,
And she telleth of love and home,
And she placeth her hand in mine, with a touch

As light as the milky foam:
I dare not look, but I know she is there,
And my thoughts to their haven roam.

And such words she whispers to me,
Through mine inmost soul they flow:
" They will ask me at home if my love was brave,

They will look in my face to know;
While I cry to Heaven; ' Oh, spare us, Lord!
As he spared the prostrate foe.' "

The wave rolls over the sea —
The cloud glides over the sky —
And the spell-bound vision of beauty and love

Breaks — breaks with a sudden sigh;
But bless'd be the watch of the midnight
That lifted my heart more high.