The far-heard hylas piping shrill and high

Tell the slow moments of the solemn night

With unremitting cry;

Lustrous and large out of the gathering drouth

The planets gleam; the baleful Scorpion

[23]

Trails his dim fires along the droused south;

The silent world-incrusted round moves on.

And all the dim night long the moon's white beams

Nestle deep down in every brooding tree,

And sleeping birds, touched with a silly glee,

Waken at midnight from their blissful dreams,

And carol brokenly.

Dim surging motions and uneasy dreads

Scare the light slumber from men's busy eyes,

And parted lovers on their restless beds

Toss and yearn out, and cannot sleep for sighs.

Oft have I striven, sweet month, to figure thee,

As dreamers of old time were wont to feign,

In living form of flesh, and striven in vain;

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