Even the lonely whip-poor-will suppress’d,

And droop’d his head upon his rounded breast.

Silence and darkness o’er the landscape reign’d;

All nature was in mournful sable drest;

The mountain rivulets seem’d all enchain’d,

Or, with a stealing step, the distant vallies gain’d.

II.

Silence is eloquent. It speaketh to the heart;

It hath a potent language, all its own,

Which bids the tear of sorrow freely start.