Poems (Duer)/A Midsummer Night's Dream

by Alice Duer and Caroline Duer

A MIDSUMMER NIGHT'S DREAM.

When the summer moon in her midnight madness
 Breaks through the clouds that would veil the night,
And the earth and air are full filled of gladness,
 And the heart of man of a vague delight;
When the wild sea-breeze to the land comes sobbing,
 And the wild sea-waves clap their hands and sing,
Then wake, mad hearts, to your passionate throbbing,
 For this is the hour when Love is king.

Sing, too, O ye stars, in the arch of heaven—
 The silence of night doth madden the brain,
And the crash of waves is too low and too even,
 Like some sad sweet chord struck again and again.
Riot, O wind, in the meadow's green tresses,
 Ripple the pools with the rush of your wing,
Wake the white land with your wanton caresses,
 For this is the hour when Love is king.

Wilt thou come through mist and cloudland of dreaming,
 Spirit I love, on the wings of sleep—
Through the night's dark space, through the moon's white beaming,
 As the spark floats down from the meteor's sweep?
For we are apart, but our souls' desire
 Like fire to fire shall leap and cling;
And the flame of thought, by the wind fanned higher,
 Burns through the hour when Love is king.

C. D.