Oh, Dreary Day! by Annie Fellows Johnston

OH, dreary day, that had so late a dawn! / Oh, dreary day, so long, though early gone! / Fold thy gray mantle round thy form and go / To find the lost sun, while Night comes on, / Across the plain, with silent step and slow.

I weary of thy dark, unsmiling mood, / I weary of thy dull disquietude, / And thy complaining voice that tells of pain, / Not with the tempest's trumpet, but subdued / In broken sentences of falling rain.

Now, soft as household spirit, comes the Night / And draws the curtains, fanning still more bright / The cheerful fire, while for her gentle sake / The tapers burst in bloom with yellow light, / Like evening primroses just kissed awake.