Lucy Maud Montgomery (1874-1942)
Night
1A pale enchanted moon is sinking low
2 Behind the dunes that fringe the shadowy lea,
3And there is haunted starlight on the flow
4 Of immemorial sea.
5I am alone and need no more pretend
6 Laughter or smile to hide a hungry heart;
7I walk with solitude as with a friend
8 Enfolded and apart.
9We tread an eerie road across the moor
10 Where shadows weave upon their ghostly looms,
11And winds sing an old lyric that might lure
12 Sad queens from ancient tombs.
13I am a sister to the loveliness
14 Of cool far hill and long-remembered shore,
15Finding in it a sweet forgetfulness
16 Of all that hurt before.
17The world of day, its bitterness and cark,
18 No longer have the power to make me weep;
19I welcome this communion of the dark
20 As toilers welcome sleep.
Notes
17] cark: anxiety.
Online text copyright © 2009, Ian Lancashire (the Department of English) and the University of Toronto.
Published by the Web Development Group, Information Technology Services, University of Toronto Libraries.
Original text: The Poetry of Lucy Maud Montgomery, ed. John Ferns and Kevin McCabe (Markham: Fitzhenry and Whiteside, 1987): 56. PS 8525 O68A6 Robarts Library.
First publication date:
January
1935
Publication date note: Canadian Magazine (Jan. 1935): 21.
RPO poem editor: Ian Lancashire
RP edition: RPO 1998.
Recent editing: 2:2002/4/4
Rhyme: abab
Other poems by Lucy Maud Montgomery
