Before the Gate by William Dean Howells

They gave the whole long day to idle laughter, / To fitful song and jest, / To moods of soberness as idle, after, / And silences, as idle too as the rest.

But when at last upon their way returning, / Taciturn, late, and loath, / Through the broad meadow in the sunset burning, / They reached the gate, one fine spell hindered them both.