Poems (Thaxter)/Midsummer Midnight

by Celia Thaxter

MIDSUMMER MIDNIGHT.

The wide, still, moonlight water miles away, Stretches in lonely splendor. Whispers creepAbout us from the midnight wind, and play Among the flowers that breathe so sweet in sleep;A soft touch sways the milk-white, stately phlox,And on its slender stem the poppy rocks.

Fair faces turn to watch the dusky sea, And clear eyes brood upon the path of lightThe white moon makes, the while deliciously, Like some vague, tender memory of delight,Or like some half remembered, dear regret,Rises the odor of the mignonnette.

Midsummer glories, moonlight, flowers- asleep, And delicate perfume, mystic winds that blowSoft-breathing, full of balm, and the great deep In leagues of shadow swaying to and fro;And loving human thought to mark it all,And human hearts that to each other call;

Needs the enchantment of the summer night Another touch to make it perfect? Hark!What sudden shaft of sound, like piercing light, Strikes on the ear athwart the moonlit dark?Like some keen shock of joy is heard withinThe wondrous music of the violin.

It is as if dumb Nature found a voice, And spoke with power, though in an unknown tongue.What kinship has the music with the noise Of waves, or winds, or with the flowers, slow-swungLike censers to and fro upon the air,Or with the shadow, or the moonlight fair?

And yet it seems some subtile link exists, We know not how. And over every phaseOf thought and feeling wandering as it lists, Playing upon us as the west wind playsOver the wind-harp, the subduing strainSweeps with resistless power of joy and pain.

Slow ebbs the golden tide and all is still. Ask the magician at whose touch awokeThat mighty, penetrating, prisoned will, The matchless voice that so divinely spoke, Kindling to fresher life the listening soul,What daring thought such fire from heaven stole?

He cannot tell us how the charm was wrought, Though in his hand he holds the potent key,Nor read the spell that to the sweet night brought This crown of rapture and of mystery,And lifted every heart, and drew awayAll trace of worldliness that marred the day.

But every head is bowed. We watch the sea With other eyes, as if some hint of blissSpoke to us through the yearning melody, Of glad new worlds, of brighter lives than this;While still the milk-white, stately phlox waves slow,And drowsily the poppy rocks below.