Poetry Explorer- Classic Contemporary Poetry, ON A NIGHTINGALE IN APRIL, by WILLIAM SHARP


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Classic and Contemporary Poetry

ON A NIGHTINGALE IN APRIL, by                     Poet's Biography
First Line: The yellow moon is a dancing phantom
Last Line: O moon-white maid!
Alternate Author Name(s): Macleod, Fiona
Subject(s): April; Birds; Moon; Nightingales; Singing & Singers; Theocritus (310-250 B.c.)


The yellow moon is a dancing phantom
Down secret ways of the flowing shade;
And the waveless stream has a murmuring whisper
Where the alders wave.

Not a breath, not a sigh, save the slow stream's whisper:
Only the moon is a dancing blade
That leads a host of the Crescent warriors
To a phantom raid.

Out of the Lands of Faerie a summons,
A long, strange cry that thrills through the glade: --
The grey-green glooms of the elm are stirring,
Newly afraid.

Last heard, white music, under the olives
Where once Theocritus sang and played --
Thy Thracian song is the old new wonder
O moon-white maid!





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