Ode to the Moon
Oft, amidst a nightly walk, still alone
I gaze deep into the heavens, and yearn
For such a gentle spirit of my own:
To embrace with a kiss by starlight, and burn
The dark hours in warm-whispered intimacy…
O Selene, full-eyed, bright, and still awake
To gild dark scenery with soft silver:
Light on the eloped, for their true Love’s sake,
A calm path of moonbeams, and deliver
The pair lost to the world towards a hidden place;
Deep in the tall grass, or by beds of flowers,
All in a hush to hear a murmuring stream.
Think what love, under midnight’s twinkling face
Would fall warm upon them, whose soft powers
Work to make coupled life a waking dream.
O, happy couple! Bathed in the same light
That soothed for Romeo his aching heart
When, in the hedge all alone under night,
His desire was dazzled by your bright art —
There! Aloft a balcony Love appeared,
Sighing innocent thoughts caught in her breast;
In this high moment, sparkled with a gleam
The world to the lover’s wish is endeared.
The chase is over, the end of true love’s quest
When breathing spirits visit as from a dream!
Moon, cool sublime ever lives in your light!
For on thy shadowy banks a breeze is blown,
An unheard wind shaking reeds for delight,
That pipe Sleep’s music once the sun lays down.
Thou hath immortal forces to behold:
To flirt at the sea with a month-long wink,
Making the trembling green waters act bold
Against the Earth, rising up to the brink.
But what invisible influence works on me
To silence thought, sunk in deep mystery?
