Contents -BIBLIOGRAPHIC RECORD

Alfred H. Miles, ed. Women Poets of the Nineteenth Century. 1907.

By Songs. VIII. Good Night, Good Night!

Joanna Baillie (1762–1851)

THE SUN is down, and time gone by,

The stars are twinkling in the sky,

Nor torch nor taper longer may

Eke out a blithe but stinted day;

The hours have pass’d with stealthy flight,

We needs must part: good night, good night!

The bride unto her bower is sent,

And ribald song and jesting spent;

The lover’s whisper’d words and few

Have bid the bashful maid adieu;

The dancing floor is silent quite,

No foot bounds there: good night, good night!

The lady in her curtain’d bed,

The herdsman in his wattled shed,

The clansmen in the heather’d hall,

Sweet sleep be with you, one and all!

We part in hopes of days as bright

As this gone by: good night, good night!

Sweet sleep be with us, one and all!

And if upon its stillness fall

The visions of a busy brain,

We’ll have our pleasure o’er again,

To warm the heart, to charm the sight,

Gay dreams to all! good night, good night!