"April Night"

April Night

God calls the day. Soft, luminous and slow,

            The great sun trembles down the trembling West

            And leaves its gold upon the ocean’s breast.

Into the East, in one white, chastened glow,

Rises the silver moon―as yet so low

            It seems to draw itself free of the trees.

            The golden-cups are drenched with dew; the breeze

Is sweet with last night’s rain; and blown with snow

The fruit trees stand, pure as a dream of love,

            Or kisses of a child; their pale blooms fall―

            Still, petaled stars―across the purple light.

And listen―hush! Somewhere a mourning-dove

            Is plaining to the silence and the night―

            A human heart-break in her grieving call.

"April Night" as it appears in Ella Higginson's When the Birds Go North Again (1898).