| Arthur Quiller-Couch, comp. The Oxford Book of Victorian Verse. 1922. | | | | On a Nightingale in April | | By Fiona MacLeod (William Sharp) (1855–1905) |
| | | 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 wade. | |
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| Not a breath, not a sigh, save the slow stream’s whisper: | 5 |
| Only the moon is a dancing blade | |
| That leads a host of the Crescent warriors | |
| To a phantom raid. | |
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| Out of the lands of Faerie a summons, | |
| A long strange cry that thrills thro’ the glade:— | 10 |
| The grey-green glooms of the elm are stirring, | |
| Newly afraid. | |
| |
| Last heard, white music, under the olives | |
| Where once Theocritus sang and play’d— | |
| Thy Thracian song is the old new wonder— | 15 |
| O moon-white maid! | | | | |
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