Poetry Explorer


Classic and Contemporary Poetry


ON A NIGHTINGALE IN APRIL by WILLIAM SHARP

First Line: THE YELLOW MOON IS A DANCING PHANTOM
Last Line: O MOON-WHITE MAID!
Subject(s): APRIL; BIRDS; MOON; NIGHTINGALES; SINGING & SINGERS; THEOCRITUS (310-250 B.C.);

The yellow moon is a dancing phantom
Down secret ways of the flowing shade;
And the waveless stream has a murmuring whisper
Where the alders wave.

Not a breath, not a sigh, save the slow stream's whisper:
Only the moon is a dancing blade
That leads a host of the Crescent warriors
To a phantom raid.

Out of the Lands of Faerie a summons,
A long, strange cry that thrills through the glade: --
The grey-green glooms of the elm are stirring,
Newly afraid.

Last heard, white music, under the olives
Where once Theocritus sang and played --
Thy Thracian song is the old new wonder
O moon-white maid!



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