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Classic and Contemporary Poetry


MOONLIGHT IN ITALY by ELIZABETH CLEMENTINE DODGE KINNEY

First Line: THERE'S NOT A BREATH THE DEWY LEAVES TO STIR
Last Line: THE SENSE OF WORSHIP INTO UTTERED PRAISE.
Subject(s): ITALY; MOON; ITALIANS;

THERE'S not a breath the dewy leaves to stir;
There's not a cloud to spot the sapphire sky;
All Nature seems a silent worshipper:
While saintly Dian, with great, argent eye,
Looks down as lucid from the depths on high
As she to Earth were Heaven's interpreter;
Each twinkling little star shrinks back, too shy
Its lesser glory to obtrude by her
Who fills the concave and the world with light;
And ah! the human spirit must unite
In such a harmony of silent lays,
Or be the only discord in this night,
Which seems to pause for vocal lips to raise
The sense of worship into uttered praise.



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