Page:Poems Trask.djvu/109

And the night-bird sang in the lonesome swamp,
And the full moon lit her blood-red lamp,
And the purple flush of the dear dead day
Faded out of the west, and left it gray.

When the stars came out in the hazy sky,
And the katydid's voice rose clear and high,
And the cricket chirped in the hawthorn hedge,
And the musical river ran o'er the sedge,
And the mist rose white as the winter snow,
And the elms in the breeze swayed to and fro,
We sat together, and hand in hand
We traveled in fancy all dreamland;
Laid gorgeous plans for the coming time,
When the world would be perfect, and life sublime.

We said we would cross the Eastern seas,
Smell India's spices and Araby's breeze;
Talk love together beneath the palms,
Hear Italy's daughters sing vesper psalms;
See sunsets fade from Alpine heights,
From dismal Norway see Northern Lights;
Climb sacred Sinai, and there, in awe,
Behold the land which the prophet saw,
And by Jerusalem's ruined towers
Deplore the wreck of her golden hours.

Oh, 'twas delicious! the rich plantain grew,
And the creamy bananas were wet with the dew;
The amber oriole flashed through the flowers,
And the bulbul sang in the orange bowers,