I.

Solemnly, mournfully,
 Dealing its dole,
The Curfew Bell
 Is beginning to toll.

Cover the embers,
 And put out the light;
Toil comes with the morning,
 And rest with the night.

Dark grow the windows,
 And quenched is the fire;
Sound fades into silence,--
 All footsteps retire.

No voice in the chambers,
 No sound in the hall!
Sleep and oblivion
 Reign over all!
 
II.

The book is completed,
 And closed, like the day;
And the hand that has written it
 Lays it away.

Dim grow its fancies;
 Forgotten they lie;
Like coals in the ashes,
 They darken and die.

Song sinks into silence,
 The story is told,
The windows are darkened,
 The hearth-stone is cold.

Darker and darker
 The black shadows fall;
Sleep and oblivion
 Reign over all.