“Soft hour! which wakes the wish and melts the heart Of those who sail the seas, on the first day When they from their sweet friends are torn apart; Or fills with love the pilgrim on his way, As the far bell of vesper makes him start, Seeming to weep the dying day’s decay. Is this a fancy which our reason scorns? Ah! surely nothing dies but something mourns!”

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The word “pilgrim” is here used by Dante in a general sense, meaning any traveller. ↩

Gray, “Elegy”:⁠—

“The curfew tolls the knell of parting day.”

“The curfew tolls the knell of parting day.”