“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” courtesy of the Ella Higginson Papers, Center for Pacific Northwest Studies, Heritage Resources, Western Washington University, Bellingham Washington.