An Evening in Spring

Here’s to the sky, now gold and gray;
The insects sing from leaf to leaf,
This hour shall linger, dusk; they stay
To brush and deepen every grief.

The birds in harmony must soar,
With brief delights in song and sigh;
The russet sunbeams on the shore
Bring fairest visions to the eye!

Let me recline upon the grass,
The leaves above my thought engage;
Around my senses, moments pass,
While evenings softly wake from age.

No storm will shake the dusks that fall,
In quietude doth nature yield,
As Night unfolds her sacred thrall,
In dreams let visions both be healed!

• William Hazlitt