Ode to the Moon
O, Selene! Bless this night for those still awake,
By gilding the dark scenery with silver.
See thy peeking lights for true lovers’ sake
A dim path of moonbeams, and deliver
The pair, lost from the world, to a hidden place
Tucked away in the tall grass, with flowers
All in a hush to hear the murmuring stream.
Think! What feelings, by midnight’s twinkling face
Would rise warm within; and what soft powers
Would turn coupled life to a waking dream!
Oh happy couple! In such intimate light
Did Romeo, whispering to his heart,
Creep between groves under the shade of night
For a glimpse of desire aglow by thy art—
There! Aloft a balcony she appears
With innocent thoughts bound up in her breast;
She sighs, speaks his name, and so casts a gleam
O’er his eye: and the world, how it endears
Itself to him and his heart’s secret quest,
And she a breathing spirit, beyond dream!
Moon, a drowsy sublime lives in your light
That silently shimmers the oceanside,
As winds shake the grass with a calm delight
To the sleepful music of a gentle tide;
Such a sacred force do we still behold,
That flirts at the Sea with a month-long wink,
Makes bold his trembling waters, thus rises
Against the Earth and tackles its sandy brink.
O what sweet passages remain untold
Of Nature’s thought-silencing mysteries!
