May Evening in Central Park / Amy Lowell

May Evening in Central Park

Lines of lamp-light
Splinter the black water,
And all through
The dim park
Are lamps      
Hanging among the trees.
But they are only like fire-flies
Pricking the darkness,
And I lean my body against it
And spread out my fingers    
To let it drift through them.
I am a swimmer
In the damp night,
Or a bird
Floating over the sucking grasses.    
I am a lover
Tracking the silver foot-prints
Of the moon.
I am a young man,
In Central Park,    
With Spring
Bursting over me.

The trees push out their young leaves,
Although this is not the country;
And I whisper beautiful, hot words,    
Although I am alone,
And a few more steps
Will bring me
The glare and suffocation
Of bright streets.      

~~
Amy Lowell (1874-1925)
from Poetry, September 1915

[Poem is in the public domain in Canada, the United States, and the European Union]

Amy Lowell biography

Edward Hopper (1882-1967), Shakespeare at Dusk, 1935. Public domain.