Soft folded to its sleeping breast

The birds within yon silent grove

Are dreaming that the spring is near —

Sweet Mary, ’tis the hour of love,

And I were blest if thou wert here.

On yon white cloud the night-wind furls

Its lone and dewy wing to sleep,

And the sweet stars look out like pearls

Through the clear waves of heaven’s blue deep;

The pale mists float around, above,