Poems (Kimball)/Vale

by Harriet McEwen Kimball

VALE.

GOOD-NIGHT, O Earth! the nights are growing long;
    The days are brief;
Life hath one solemn burden for its song:
    "As fades the leaf."

Good-night, poor World! if thou art full o sin
    Why so am I!
In this proud heart to judge would I begin,
    Nor self pass by.

Good-night my foe! not all the wrong was thine;
    My share I own;
Forgive!—we, human, know one word Divine;
    The sun goes down.

Good-night, good friend! though poor my gifts to thee
    I will not fret;
The richer thou whose bounty is so free,
    And sweet my debt.

No longer to revenge nor to repay
    I strive or seek;
Empty I came, must empty go away,
    Empty and weak.

As one who wakes no more to smile or weep
    Another day,
So would I lay me humbly down to sleep
    And humbly say:

Dear Lord, who hadst not where to lay Thy head,
    As poor were I
Did not Thy mercy make for me a bed
    Whereon to die.