An April Night / Lucy Maud Montgomery

An April Night

The moon comes up o'er the deeps of the woods,
    And the long, low dingles that hide in the hills,
Where the ancient beeches are moist with buds
    Over the pools and the whimpering rills;

And with her the mists, like dryads that creep
    From their oaks, or the spirits of pine-hid springs,
Who hold, while the eyes of the world are asleep,
    With the wind on the hills their gay revellings.

Down on the marshlands with flicker and glow
    Wanders Will-o'-the-Wisp through the night,
Seeking for witch-gold lost long ago
    By the glimmer of goblin lantern-light.

The night is a sorceress, dusk-eyed and dear,
    Akin to all eerie and elfin things,
Who weaves about us in meadow and mere
    The spell of a hundred vanished Springs.

~~
Lucy Maud Montgomery (1874-1942)
from The Watchman, and other poems, 1916

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

Lucy Maud Montgomery biography

Raj Dahal, Cavendish Beach, Prince Edward Island, 2016. CC BY-SA 4.0, Wikimedia Commons.