 | The Poems of Mackenzie Bell |  |
TO ------
(A Summer Evening in the Woods.)
I
How lovely are the woodland glades to-night,The boughs slow moving in the balmy air,
As birds sing now and then from pure delight
With melody low-pitched, though scarce aware
They sing. The branches, erewhile gaunt and bare,
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A dreamy revel, murmuring everywhere;
In these dear glades, so still, so dim, so deep,
Save for these lulling sounds kind Nature seems to sleep.
II
The voiceless stars shine out, and all too soonThe calm delicious summer twilight ends;
Yet but a little space, and lo! the moon
Has ris'n, and thence a flood of light descends,
While she among the clouds, majestic, wends
Her queen-like way; obsequious stand they near,
Like courtiers round a throne; each object lends
Fresh beauty to the landscape made so clear
In this rare light that all its richer hues are here.
III
Now in this evening walk there lives anewThat joyous summer evening long ago,
Sweet as to-night, when first I walked with you—
When, as the westering sun was sinking low,
I first knew all your love for me; and so
Each year since then more swiftly than the last
Has gone, for Time but made our love to grow.
Yes, while the years are hurrying to the past,
My one regret it is that still they fly so fast.
| The Poems of Mackenzie Bell | |