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