Flight the First. Daylight and Moonlight. Birds of Passage. Henry Wadsworth Longfellow. 1893. Complete Poetical Works

Henry Wadsworth Longfellow (1807–1882). Complete Poetical Works. 1893.

Birds of Passage

Flight the First.
Daylight and Moonlight


IN broad daylight, and at noon,
Yesterday I saw the moon
Sailing high, but faint and white,
As a school-boy’s paper kite.

In broad daylight, yesterday,	5
I read a Poet’s mystic lay;
And it seemed to me at most
As a phantom, or a ghost.

But at length the feverish day
Like a passion died away,	10
And the night, serene and still,
Fell on village, vale, and hill.

Then the moon, in all her pride,
Like a spirit glorified,
Filled and overflowed the night	15
With revelations of her light.

And the Poet’s song again
Passed like music through my brain;
Night interpreted to me
All its grace and mystery.	20