In The Placid Summer Midnight

In the placid summer midnight, Under the drowsy sky, I seem to hear in the stillness The moths go glimmering by. One by one from the windows The lights have all been sped. Never a blind looks conscious - The street is asleep in bed! But I come where a living casement Laughs luminous and wide; I hear the song of a piano Break in a sparkling tide; And I feel, in the waltz that frolics And warbles swift and clear, A sudden sense of shelter And friendliness and cheer . . . A sense of tinkling glasses, Of love and laughter and light - The piano stops, and the window Stares blank out into the night. The blind goes out, and I wander To the old, unfriendly sea, The lonelier for the memory That walks like a ghost with me.