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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

Summer Night

By Milicent Washburn Shinn (1858–1940)

[Born in Washington Township, Alameda Co., Cal., 1858. Died in Niles, Cal., 1940. The Century Magazine, The Overland Monthly, etc. 1881–84.]

THE VAST half-sphere of plain and sky

Brims full with pallid light;

Moon-whitened all the grain-fields lie,

Like seas grown still with night;

And scattered houses, far and nigh,

Among their trees gleam white.

Oh, warmly does the night enfold

The earth, caressed with showers of gold.

And yet, not so, sweet night,

Not so I long for thee,

Not so come thou to me.

Come, mighty shade, till earth might be

Alone in primal space,

Till I lie drowned beneath a sea

That upward from my face

Goes on and on unendingly,

Nor hints of time or place;

Till I might think that o’er my eyes,

Close-shut, the earth forever lies.

So longs my soul for thee.

Oh, so, I pray, sweet night,

So come thou unto me.

1881.

Contents -Volume INDEX -AUTHOR INDEX -BIBLIOGRAPHIC RECORD