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Home  »  The World’s Best Poetry  »  Last Night

Bliss Carman, et al., eds. The World’s Best Poetry. 1904.

VII. Love’s Power

Last Night

Christian Winther (1796–1876)

From the Swedish by Théophile Julius Henry Marzials

LAST night the nightingale waked me,

Last night when all was still;

It sang in the golden moonlight

From out the woodland hill.

I opened the window gently,

And all was dreamy dew—

And oh! the bird, my darling,

Was singing, singing of you!

I think of you in the day-time;

I dream of you by night—

I wake—would you were near me,

And hot tears blind my sight.

I hear a sigh in the lime-tree,

The wind is floating through,

And oh! the night, my darling,

Is longing, longing for you.

Nor think I can forget you!

I could not though I would!

I see you in all around me,—

The stream, the night, the wood;

The flowers that sleep so gently,

The stars above the blue,

Oh! heaven itself, my darling,

Is praying, praying for you.