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Home  »  A Library of American Literature  »  A Serenade

Stedman and Hutchinson, comps. A Library of American Literature:
An Anthology in Eleven Volumes. 1891.
Vols. IX–XI: Literature of the Republic, Part IV., 1861–1889

A Serenade

By Edward Coate Pinkney (1802–1828)

[From Poems. Second Edition. 1838.]

LOOK out upon the stars, my love,

And shame them with thine eyes,

On which, than on the lights above,

There hang more destinies.

Night’s beauty is the harmony

Of blending shades and light:

Then, lady, up,—look out, and be

A sister to the night!

Sleep not!—thine image wakes for aye

Within my watching breast;

Sleep not!—from her soft sleep should fly,

Who robs all hearts of rest.

Nay, lady, from thy slumbers break,

And make this darkness gay,

With looks whose brightness well might make

Of darker nights a day.