| Higginson and Bigelow, comps. American Sonnets. 1891. | | | | The Whippoorwill | | By James Riley |
| | | SWEET bird of twilight’s hour! when all is still, | |
| And cool gray shadows close the scene of song, | |
| Then to the full round moon, all clear and strong, | |
| Thou soundest out thy lay beside some rill | |
| Where Nature, thousand-tongued, all day did thrill | 5 |
| June with her rosy bowers, which now belong | |
| To thee! where to the many-twinkling stars thou long | |
| Hast all thy inmost soul-life piped, until, | |
| Enraptured, even Melancholy to thee yields | |
| Her cypress crown, that shadows all the plains. | 10 |
| Sing on, O bird of eve! Let hills and streams | |
| Where Silence rests on the dew-jewelled fields | |
| List long unto thy sweet, mellifluous strains, | |
| While in the west pale Evening sits and dreams. | | | | |
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