The Midnight Bell

HARK! through the midnight lonely
How tolls the convent-bell!

But ah! no summer-breeze awakes the sound;
The beating of the heavy hammer only
Is author of the melancholy knell

That startles the dull ear for miles around.

How such a bell resembles
The drooping poet's heart!

Thereon must Misery's hammer drearily jar,
Ere the deep melody that shrinks and trembles
Within its daedal chambers can impart
Its tale unto the listless world afar.

And, woe is me! too often
Hath such a bell alone,

At such an hour, with such disastrous tongue,
Power to disarm the heart's despair, and soften
Its chords to music; even as now its tone
Inspires me with the lay I thus have sung.