midnight (n.)
Midnight brought on the dusky hour
Friendliest to sleep and silence.
Comus and his midnight crew.
And bear about the mockery of woe
To midnight dances and the public show.
This dead of midnight is the noon of thought,
And Wisdom mounts her zenith with the stars.
Fly not yet; 't is just the hour
When pleasure, like the midnight flower
That scorns the eye of vulgar light,
Begins to bloom for sons of night
And maids who love the moon.
What doth gravity out of his bed at midnight?
How now, you secret, black, and midnight hags!
We have heard the chimes at midnight.
Who ne'er his bread in sorrow ate,
Who ne'er the mournful midnight hours
Weeping upon his bed has sate,
He knows you not, ye Heavenly Powers.
It was the calm and silent night!
Seven hundred years and fifty-three
Had Rome been growing up to might,
And now was queen of land and sea.
No sound was heard of clashing wars,
Peace brooded o'er the hushed domain;
Apollo, Pallas, Jove, and Mars
Held undisturbed their ancient reign
In the solemn midnight,
Centuries ago.
The iron tongue of midnight hath told twelve.
Ye towers of Julius, London's lasting shame,
With many a foul and midnight murder fed.
Whence is thy learning? Hath thy toil
O'er books consum'd the midnight oil?
Fairy elves,
Whose midnight revels by a forest side
Or fountain some belated peasant sees,
Or dreams he sees, while overhead the moon
Sits arbitress.
Midnight shout and revelry,
Tipsy dance and jollity.
The stars of midnight shall be dear
To her; and she shall lean her ear
In many a secret place
Where rivulets dance their wayward round,
And beauty born of murmuring sound
Shall pass into her face.
