Night-Scented Flowers

"Call back your odors, lonely flowers,

From the night-wind call them back,

And fold your leaves till the laughing hours

Come forth in the sunbeam's track.

"The lark lies couched in her grassy nest,

And the honey-bee is gone,

And all bright things are away to rest;

Why watch ye here alone?"

"Nay, let our shadowy beauty bloom

When the stars give quiet light,

And let us offer our faint perfume

On the silent shrine of night.

"Call it not wasted, the scent we lend

To the breeze when no step is nigh:

Oh! thus forever the earth should send

Her grateful breath on high!

"And love us as emblems, night's dewy flowers,

Of hopes unto sorrow given,

That spring through the gloom of the darkest hours,

Looking alone to heaven."