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Classic and Contemporary Poetry


SUMMER NIGHT by EDWARD ROWLAND SILL

First Line: FROM THE WARM GARDEN IN THE SUMMER NIGHT
Last Line: "REST!"" THEN HE CRIED; ""PERTURBED SPIRIT, REST!"

FROM the warm garden in the summer night
All faintest odors came: the tuberose white
Glimmered in its dark bed, and many a bloom
Invisibly breathed spices on the gloom.
It stirred a trouble in the man's dull heart,
A vexing, mute unrest: "Now what thou art,
Tell me!" he said in anger. Something sighed,
"I am the poor ghost of a ghost that died
In years gone by." And he recalled of old
A passion dead -- long dead, even then -- that came
And haunted many a night like this, the same
In their dim hush above the fragrant mould
And glimmering flowers, and troubled all his breast.
"Rest!" then he cried; "perturbed spirit, rest!"



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