22
Richard Forest's Midsummer Night.
IX.
Oh, how the nights are short,
These heavenly nights of June!
The long hot day amort
With toil, the time to court
So stinted in its boon!
Oh, how the nights are short,
These heavenly nights of June!
The long hot day amort
With toil, the time to court
So stinted in its boon!
But three or four brief hours
Between the afterglow
And dawnlight; while the flowers
Are dreaming in their bowers,
And birds their song forego;
Between the afterglow
And dawnlight; while the flowers
Are dreaming in their bowers,
And birds their song forego;
And in the noon of night,
As in the noon of day,
Flowers close on their delight,
Birds nestle from their flight,
Deep stillness holdeth sway:
As in the noon of day,
Flowers close on their delight,
Birds nestle from their flight,
Deep stillness holdeth sway:
Only the nightingales
Yet sing to moon and stars,
Although their full song fails;
The corn-crake never quails,
But through the silence jars.
Yet sing to moon and stars,
Although their full song fails;
The corn-crake never quails,
But through the silence jars.
So few brief hours of peace;
And only one for us,
And only one for us,
