Marjorie Allen Seiffert. Nocturne. Harriet Monroe, ed. Poetry: A Magazine of Verse. 1912-22

Harriet Monroe, ed. (1860–1936). Poetry: A Magazine of Verse. 1912–22.

Nocturne

By Marjorie Allen Seiffert


From “Gallery of Paintings” THE MOONLIT hill
And the black trees
Where a hidden bird
Sings and is still—
Even these	5
Leave me unstirred.

I am hidden deep,
Like the secret bough
Of a tree in leaf.
I am safe asleep—	10
What can touch me now
Of joy or grief?

For night and noon
The sky is shut,
The winds are dumb;	15
Behind the moon
No gates are cut
For the winds to come.

Could wind from the moon
Sweep down until,	20
Like a winter tree,
My leaves were strewn
On the moonlit hill
And I stood free,

Beauty and pain	25
Would touch me now
With bitter cold,
As moonbeams rain
Through a naked bough
When the year is old.	30