Atonement Evening Prayer

Atonement Day--evening pray'r--sadness profound. The soul-lights, so clear once, are dying around. The reader is spent, and he barely can speak; The people are faint, e'en the basso is weak. The choristers pine for the hour of repose. Just one--two chants more, and the pray'r book we close! And now ev'ry Jew's supplication is ended, And Nilah* approaching, and twilight descended. The blast of the New Year is blown on the horn, All go; by the Ark I am standing forlorn, And thinking: "How shall it be with us anon, When closed is the temple, and ev'ryone gone!"