As the dying hues of afternoon

Lapsed into evening drear.

A withered leaf, wafted on in the street,

Like a wayless spectre, sighed;

Aslant on the roof-tops a sickly moon

Did mutely abide.

Yet waste though the shallowing day might seem,

And fainter than hope its rose,

Strangely that speech in my thoughts welled on;

As water in-flows: