 | The Battle-Day and Other Poems |  |
146
MOONRISE.
What stands upon the Highland?
What walks across the rise,
As tho' a starry island
Were sinking down the skies?
What walks across the rise,
As tho' a starry island
Were sinking down the skies?
What makes the trees so golden?
What decks the mountain-side,
Like a veil of silver folden
Round the white brow of a bride?
What decks the mountain-side,
Like a veil of silver folden
Round the white brow of a bride?
The magic moon is breaking
Like a conqueror from the East,
The waiting world awaking
To a golden fairy-feast.
Like a conqueror from the East,
The waiting world awaking
To a golden fairy-feast.
147
She works with touch ethereal
By changes strange to see,
The cypress so funereal
To a lightsome fairy tree;
By changes strange to see,
The cypress so funereal
To a lightsome fairy tree;
Black rocks to marble turning,
Like palaces of kings;
On ruin-windows burning
A festal glory flings;
Like palaces of kings;
On ruin-windows burning
A festal glory flings;
The desert halls uplighting,
While falling shadows glance,
Like courtly crowds uniting
For the banquet or the dance;
While falling shadows glance,
Like courtly crowds uniting
For the banquet or the dance;
With ivory wand she numbers
The stars along the sky,
And breaks the billows' slumbers
With a love-glance of her eye;
The stars along the sky,
And breaks the billows' slumbers
With a love-glance of her eye;
148
Along the cornfields dances,
Brings bloom upon the sheaf;
From tree to tree she glances,
And touches leaf by leaf;
Brings bloom upon the sheaf;
From tree to tree she glances,
And touches leaf by leaf;
Wakes birds that sleep in shadows,
Thro' their half-closed eyelids gleams;
With her white torch thro' the meadows
Lights the shy deer to the streams.
Thro' their half-closed eyelids gleams;
With her white torch thro' the meadows
Lights the shy deer to the streams.
The magic moon is breaking
Like a conqueror from the East,
And the joyous world partaking
Of her golden fairy-feast.
Like a conqueror from the East,
And the joyous world partaking
Of her golden fairy-feast.
| The Battle-Day and Other Poems | |