A Summer's Night / Paul Laurence Dunbar

A Summer's Night

The night is dewy as a maiden's mouth,
The skies are bright as are a maiden's eyes,
Soft as a maiden's breath, the wind that flies
Up from the perfumed bosom of the South.

Like sentinels, the pines stand in the park;
And hither hastening like rakes that roam,
With lamps to light their wayward footsteps home,
The fire-flies come stagg'ring down the dark.

~~
Paul Laurence Dunbar (1872-1906)
from Lyrics of Lowly Life, 1896

[Poem is in the public domain worldwide]

Paul Laurence Dunbar biography