RAIN ON THE ROOF

When the humid shadows hover

Over all the starry spheres 

And the melancholy darkness

Gently weeps in rainy tears,

What a bliss to press the pillow 

Of a cottage-chamber bed

And lie listening to the patter

Of the soft rain overhead!

Every tinkle on the shingles 

Has an echo in the Heart;

And a thousand dreamy fancies 

Into busy being start,

And a thousand of recollections

Weave their air-threads into woof 

As I listen to the patter

Of the rain upon the roof.

Now in memory comes my mother 

As she used in years a gone,

To regard the darling dreamers

Ere she left them till the dawn 

O! I feel the fond look on me

As I list to this refrain

Which is played upon the shingles 

By the patter of the rain.