Poetry Explorer- Classic Contemporary Poetry, MOONLIGHT, by THOMAS CAMPBELL


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MOONLIGHT, by                 Poet Analysis     Poet's Biography
First Line: The kiss that would make a maid's cheek flush
Last Line: Whilst lovers came and courted.
Subject(s): Kisses


THE kiss that would make a maid's cheek flush
Wroth, as if kissing were a sin
Amidst the Argus eyes and din
And tell-tale glare of noon,
Brings but a murmur and a blush,
Beneath the modest moon.

Ye days, gone -- never to come back,
When love returned entranced me so,
That still its pictures move and glow
In the dark chamber of my heart;
Leave not my memory's future track --
I will not let you part.

'Twas moonlight, when my earliest love
First on my bosom dropped her head;
A moment then concentrated
The bliss of years, as if the spheres
Their course had faster driven,
And carried Enoch-like above,
A living man to Heaven.

'Tis by the rolling moon we measure,
The date between our nuptial night
And that blest hour which brings to light
The fruit of bliss -- the pledge of faith;
When we impress upon the treasure
A father's earliest kiss.

The Moon's the Earth's enamored bride;
True to him in her very changes,
To other stars she never ranges:
Though, crossed by him, sometimes she dips
Her light, in short offended pride,
And faints to an eclipse.

The fairies revel by her sheen;
'Tis only when the Moon's above
The fire-fly kindles into love,
And flashes light to show it:
The nightingale salutes her Queen
Of Heaven, her heavenly poet.

Then ye that love -- by moonlight gloom
Meet at my grave, and plight regard.
Oh! could I be the Orphean bard
Of whom it is reported,
That nightingales sung o'er his tomb,
Whilst lovers came and courted.





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