| Harriet Monroe, ed. (1860–1936). Poetry: A Magazine of Verse. 1912–22. | | | | The Moon’s Orchestra | | By John Gould Fletcher |
| | From “Down the Mississippi”
WHEN the moon lights up | |
| Its dull red camp-fire through the trees; | |
| And floats out, like a white balloon, | |
| Into the blue cup of the night, borne by a casual breeze; | |
| The moon-orchestra then begins to stir: | 5 |
| Jiggle of fiddles commence their crazy dance in the darkness; | |
| Crickets churr | |
| Against the stark reiteration of the rusty flutes which frogs | |
| Puff at from rotted logs | |
| In the swamp. | 10 |
| And the moon begins her dance of frozen pomp | |
| Over the lightly quivering floor of the flat and mournful river. | |
| Her white feet slightly twist and swirl— | |
| She is a mad girl | |
| In an old unlit ball-room, | 15 |
| Whose walls, half-guessed-at through the gloom, | |
| Are hung with the rusty crape of stark black cypresses, | |
| Which show, through gaps and tatters, red stains half hidden away. | | | | |
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