The Atlantic Monthly/Volume 1/Number 4/Daylight and Moonlight
For other versions of this work, see Daylight and Moonlight.
Daylight and Moonlight.
In broad daylight, and at noon,
Yesterday I saw the moon
Sailing high, but faint and white,
As a school-boy's paper kite.
Yesterday I saw the moon
Sailing high, but faint and white,
As a school-boy's paper kite.
In broad daylight, yesterday,
I read a poet's mystic lay;
And it seemed to me at most
As a phantom, or a ghost.
I read a poet's mystic lay;
And it seemed to me at most
As a phantom, or a ghost.
But at length the feverish day
Like a passion died away,
And the night, serene and still,
Fell on village, vale, and hill.
Like a passion died away,
And the night, serene and still,
Fell on village, vale, and hill.
Then the moon, in all her pride,
Like a spirit glorified,
Filled and overflowed the night
With revelations of her light.
Like a spirit glorified,
Filled and overflowed the night
With revelations of her light.
And the poet's song again
Passed like music through my brain;
Night interpreted to me
All its grace and mystery.
Passed like music through my brain;
Night interpreted to me
All its grace and mystery.