Poetry Explorer- Classic Contemporary Poetry, A MAY NIGHT, by JOHANNA AMBROSIUS


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Classic and Contemporary Poetry

A MAY NIGHT, by                     Poet's Biography
First Line: The moon is rising! With one more breath / gasping
Last Line: The image of eternal peace is seen.
Subject(s): Night; Bedtime


THE moon is rising! With one more breath gasping,
To rest doth lay him down the weary wind;
The flowerets, their hands devoutly clasping,
Their eyes close slowly, sweet repose to find.
An atmosphere of peace the wood and wold sways,
Millions of pearls the lake's bright waters strew;
Along the forest's green and moss-grown pathways
With flying feet hastens the timid roe.

A silver rain drips from the smallest wavelet
Whereon the water-lily's head doth lean;
By longings urged, which no fulfilment have yet,
The nixie rises through the cool tide's sheen.
From hedge and willow a sweet song entrances,
The nightingale's love-notes float through the air, --
The nixie hears, and to its music dances,
Twining the fairest roses in her hair.

What whispers low, what secret mystic signals,
Faint, bell-like chimes echo from star to star!
Meseems that Heaven has flung wide its portals,
And angel voices reach me from afar.
Stirred by her calm and quiet breathing only,
Our kindly mother Nature's breast appears;
And from Day's burning cheeks, prostrate and weary,
Is kissed away the last trace of her tears.

And thou, my heart! ah, cease thy troubled weeping,
As if thy future held but storm and noontide-blaze;
See'st thou not love's eternal banner sweeping
Its outstretched folds o'er the sun-chariot's rays?
So, too, for thee the fields now scorched by sorrow
One day will lie beneath the moon's mild sheen,
E'en as, within the crystal waters' still flow,
The image of eternal peace is seen.





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