Good-Night [poem by Evelyn Threlfall, 1895]

[Editor: A poem by Evelyn Ages Threlfall (nee Baird), who moved to Australia in 1886, accompanying her husband, Sir Richard Threlfall, who had taken up a position at the University of Sydney as professor of physics; she moved back to England in 1898.]

Sonnet

Good-Night

Farewell, good-night ! the terraced garden lies
All white beneath the moon, in sighing sleep,
— The sea looms as a shadow, but the skies
Draw near us, heart to heart, and deep to deep,
Till weeping Love clings close to stars that weep,
And all the purple Night, dissolved in sighs,
Lays her immortal hand on weary eyes, —
— Oh Night beloved I one memory for us keep !

Oh rapturous Austral night of stars and scent !
My life is but a passing dream of thine
Who countest not the fires of stars outspent
As ages circle round thy deathless shrine,
— Yet dear as dearest love and nearest sight,
Thy voice speaks low to me : “Farewell, good-night.”

Sydney, 1894.

Source:
Evelyn Threlfall. Starlight Songs, Kegan Paul, Trench, Trubner, & Co., London, 1895, page 97

References:
“Threlfall, Evelyn”, AusLit (accessed 13 August 2012)
“11 Evelyn Agnes Baird 1866”, Richard Angus (accessed 13 August 2012)