| Edmund Clarence Stedman, ed. (1833–1908). An American Anthology, 1787–1900. 1900. |
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| 193. Curfew |
| | | By Henry Wadsworth Longfellow |
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| SOLEMNLY, mournfully, | |
| Dealing its dole, | |
| The Curfew Bell | |
| Is beginning to toll. | |
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| Cover the embers, | 5 |
| And put out the light; | |
| Toil comes with the morning, | |
| And rest with the night. | |
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| Dark grow the windows, | |
| And quenched is the fire; | 10 |
| Sound fades into silence,— | |
| All footsteps retire. | |
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| No voice in the chambers, | |
| No sound in the hall! | |
| Sleep and oblivion | 15 |
| Reign over all! | |
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| The book is completed, | |
| And closed, like the day; | |
| And the hand that has written it | |
| Lays it away. | 20 |
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| Dim grow its fancies; | |
| Forgotten they lie; | |
| Like coals in the ashes, | |
| They darken and die. | |
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| Song sinks into silence, | 25 |
| The story is told, | |
| The windows are darkened, | |
| The hearth-stone is cold. | |
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| Darker and darker | |
| The black shadows fall; | 30 |
| Sleep and oblivion | |
| Reign over all. | |
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