Edmund Clarence Stedman, ed. (1833–1908). A Victorian Anthology, 1837–1895. 1895.

F. Wyville Home b. 1851

In a September Night

THERE the moon leans out and blesses

All the dreamy hills below:

Here the willows wash their tresses

Where the water-lilies blow

In the stream that glideth slow.

High in heaven, in serried ranges,

Cloud-wreaths float through pallid light,

Like a flock of swans that changes

In the middle Autumn night

North for South in ordered flight.

What know ye, who hover yonder,

More than I, of that veiled good

Whither all things tend, I wonder,

That ye follow the wind’s mood

In such patient quietude?