Poem by William Ernest Henley

Echoes. 26. In the Placid Summer Midnight

In the placid summer midnight,
   Under the drowsy sky,
I seem to hear in the stillness
   The moths go glimmering by.

One by one from the windows
   The lights have all been sped.
Never a blind looks conscious—
   The street is asleep in bed!

But I come where a living casement
   Laughs luminous and wide;
I hear the song of a piano
   Break in a sparkling tide;

And I feel, in the waltz that frolics
   And warbles swift and clear,
A sudden sense of shelter
   And friendliness and cheer...

p. 147A sense of tinkling glasses,
   Of love and laughter and light—
The piano stops, and the window
   Stares blank out into the night.

The blind goes out, and I wander
   To the old, unfriendly sea,
The lonelier for the memory
   That walks like a ghost with me.

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