"The Nights of June"

The Nights of June

“Did you see that?” said the rose

        To the moon;

“No; a cloud went over my face

        Too soon.”

“What was it you saw?” to the rose

        Said the moon;

(The night was a night of delight;

        The time—was June.)

The pink rose trembled, and hung

        Her head;

“I never could gossip of them,”

        She said.

“But only watch,” said the rose

        To the moon,

“When the cloud has gone by!” … The wind

        Hummed a tune.

“God bless the cloud!” said the man

        To the maid,

As they paused alone by the rose

        In the shade.

“Oh, hush—here’s a rose,” cried the maid

        To the man;

“It might see and hear! Do you think

        It can?”

(Oh, the nights and the dear delights

        Of June!)

“Did you see that?” called the rose

        To the moon.

"The Nights of June" as it appears in Ella Higginson's The Voice of April-Land and Other Poems (1903).

A draft of "The Nights of June" on onionskin paper, courtesy of the Ella Higginson Papers, Center for Pacific Northwest Studies, Heritage Resources, Western Washington University, Bellingham WA.