Night stillness, when all things

Are hushed, and in the black

Even the birds are quiet,

And the tones of deepest silence

Give to silence back,

And all the land is calm, and trees

Are shaken not by any wind,

And only emptiness and dark are there

Above the sleeping earth -

That is the hour of hours, when straight

To God, through stillness and the night

Can rise a little prayer.