MIDNIGHT MASS FOR THE DYING YEAR. Written at Cambridge, September 17, 1839, and published in the Knickerbocker, October, 1839, as The Fifth Psalm; the author also calls it in his Diary An Autumnal Chant. YES, the Year is growing old, And his eye is pale and bleared! The leaves are falling, falling, Caw! caw! the rooks are calling, It is a sound of woe, A sound of woe! Through woods and mountain passes And the hooded clouds, like friars, There he stands in the foul weather, Crowned with wild flowers and with heather, A king, a king! MIDNIGHT MASS FOR THE DYING YEAR 33 Then comes the summer-like day, Bids the old man rejoice! His joy! his last! Oh, the old man gray To the crimson woods he saith, Of the soft air, like a daughter's breath, And now the sweet day is dead; Then, too, the Old Year dieth, And the forests utter a moan, Then comes, with an awful roar, The storm-wind! Howl! howl! and from the forest Line 4. Loveth her ever-soft voice, Would, the sins that thou abhorrest, For there shall come a mightier blast, There shall be a darker day; And the stars, from heaven down-cast Like red leaves be swept away! Kyrie, eleyson! Christe, eleyson! EARLIER POEMS "These poems were written for the most part during my college life, and all of them before the age of nineteen. Some have found their way into schools, and seem to be successful. Others lead a vagabond and precarious existence in the corners of newspapers; or have changed their names and run away to seek their fortunes beyond the sea. I say, with the Bishop of Avranches on a similar occasion: 'I cannot be displeased to see these children of mine, which I have neglected, and almost exposed, brought from their wanderings in lanes and alleys, and safely lodged, in order to go forth into the world together in a more decorous garb. This note was prefixed by Mr. Longfellow to the following group of poems when published in Voices of the Night. The same collection was retained in subsequent editions with only slight textual variation. The forms given in the foot-notes are those of the edition of 1839. In the appendix will be found a fuller collection of poems of this class. The first five" of the following, Mr. Longfellow says elsewhere in a manuscript note, were written during my last year in college, in No. 27 Maine Hall, whose windows looked out upon the pine groves to which allusion is made in L'Envoi." These five poems were first published in the United States Literary Gazette, 1824-1825. 66 AN APRIL DAY. WHEN the warm sun, that brings I love the season well, When forest glades are teeming with bright forms, Nor dark and many-folded clouds foretell From the earth's loosened mould The sapling draws its sustenance, and thrives; Though stricken to the heart with winter's cold, The drooping tree revives. The softly-warbled song Comes from the pleasant woods, and colored wings Glance quick in the bright sun, that moves along The forest openings. When the bright sunset fills The silver woods with light, the green slope throws Its shadows in the hollows of the hills, And wide the upland glows. And when the eve is born, In the blue lake the sky, o'er-reaching far, Inverted in the tide Stand the gray rocks, and trembling shadows throw, And the fair trees look over, side by side, And see themselves below. Sweet April! many a thought Is wedded unto thee, as hearts are wed; Line 8. Comes through the pleasant woods, and colored wings |
