A Summer's Night

The night is dewy as a maiden's mouth,

The skies are bright as are a maiden's eyes,

Soft as a maiden's breath the wind that flies

Up from the perfumed bosom of the South.

Like sentinels, the pines stand in the park;

And hither hastening, like rakes that roam,

With lamps to light their wayward footsteps home,

The fireflies come stagg'ring down the dark.