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Home  »  An American Anthology, 1787–1900  »  662 The Night Watch

Edmund Clarence Stedman, ed. (1833–1908). An American Anthology, 1787–1900. 1900.

By WilliamWinter

662 The Night Watch

BENEATH the midnight moon of May,

Through dusk on either hand,

One sheet of silver spreads the bay,

One crescent jet the land;

The black ships mirrored in the stream

Their ghostly tresses shake—

When will the dead world cease to dream?

When will the morning break?

Beneath a night no longer May,

Where only cold stars shine,

One glimmering ocean spreads away

This haunted life of mine;

And, shattered on the frozen shore,

My harp can never wake—

When will this night of death be o’er?

When will the morning break?