Poems (Van Rensselaer)/A Night in May
A NIGHT IN MAY
Sweet is long sleep, but there is sweeter still:
To wake in the deep after-midnight hush,
To hear the drowsing flute and brief low trill
Of nesting bird rocked in the lilac-bush
That pours its perfume on the wooing wind.
—I breathe the night-enchanted flower, I hear
The dream-entangled song; and thus I find
Through my own dreams the truth that thou art near,
In my dim thoughts the memory of thy kiss:
Sweeter than sleep it is to wake like this.
To wake in the deep after-midnight hush,
To hear the drowsing flute and brief low trill
Of nesting bird rocked in the lilac-bush
That pours its perfume on the wooing wind.
—I breathe the night-enchanted flower, I hear
The dream-entangled song; and thus I find
Through my own dreams the truth that thou art near,
In my dim thoughts the memory of thy kiss:
Sweeter than sleep it is to wake like this.