O witchery of the winter night (With broad moon shouldering to the west)! In the city streets the west wind sweeps Before my feet in rustling flight; The midnight snows in untracked heaps Lie cold and desolate and white. I stand and wait with upturned eyes, Awed with the splendor of the skies And star-trained progress of the moon. The city walls dissolve like smoke Beneath the magic of thy moon, And age falls from me like a cloak; I hear sweet girlish voices ring Clear as some softly stricken string — (The moon is sailing to the west.) The sleigh-bells clash in homeward flight; with frost each horse's breast is white — (The big moon sinking in the west.) "Good night, Lettie!" "Good night, Ben!" (The moon is sinking at the west.) "Good night, my sweetheart." Once again The parting kiss while comrades wait Impatient at the roadside gate, And the red moon sinks beyond the west. | Discover our Poem Explanations and Poet Analyses!Other Poems of Interest...THE DEATH OF A PHOTOGRAPHER by KAREN SWENSON FROM THE WOOLWORTH TOWER by SARA TEASDALE ON SIR PALMES FAIRBORNE'S TOMB, IN WESTERMINSTER ABBEY by JOHN DRYDEN TO THE PLIOCENE SKULL by FRANCIS BRET HARTE FONTENOY, 1745: 2. AFTER THE BATTLE, EARLY DAWN, CLARE COAST by EMILY LAWLESS A NIGHT-PIECE ON DEATH by THOMAS PARNELL |