Night Thoughts

THERE'S a wind to-night in the apple-trees,

My father below has turned his keys,

But how up there shall I sleep at ease--

There's a wind to-night in the apple-trees?

Far off, beyond my half-shut doors

The clock ticks slowly, with never a pause.

In the darkness I hear the fluttering blind;

I will go to the window, what shall I find?

O, fearfully still is the moonlit ride

Where apple blossom falls like a tide:

But can that be a storm-blown shadow, see,

That moves like a robber from tree to tree?

I can see him too at the high road edge

There, where the blossom blows over the hedge!

What a snow of moonlit blossom! Hark!

There's a dog in the village beginning to bark.

While calmly beyond my half-shut doors

The clock ticks slowly with never a pause.

Godfrey Elton