It is the hour when from the boughs The nightingale's high note is heard. It is the hour when lovers' vows Seem sweet in every whisper'd word. And gentle winds and waters near Make music to the lonely ear. Each flower the dews have lightly wet, And in the sky the stars are met: And on the wave is deeper blue, And on the leaf a browner hue, And in the Heaven, that clear obscure So softly dark and darkly pure, That follows the decline of day As twilight melts beneath the moon away
Slowly, silently, now the moon Walks the night in her silver shoon; This way, and that, she peers, and sees Silver fruit upon silver trees; One by one the casements catch Her beams beneath the silvery thatch; Couched in his kennel, like a log, With paws of silver sleeps the dog; From their shadowy cote the white breasts peep Of doves in a silver-feathered sleep; A harvest mouse goes scampering by, With silver claws and a silver eye; And moveless fish in the water gleam, By silver reeds in a silver stream.