A Twilight Song poem – Alfred Austin

Why, rapturous bird, though shades of night

Muffle the leaves and swathe the lawn,

Singest thou still with all thy might,

As though ’twere noon, as though ’twere dawn?

Silence darkens on vale and hill,

But thou, unseen, art singing still.

‘Tis because, though in dusky bower,

With love delighted still thou art;

Nor hath the deepening twilight power

To lay a curfew on thy heart.

Thou lovest; and, loving, dost prolong

The sense of sunlight with thy song.

Thus may love’s rapture haunt me still

When life’s full radiance fadeth slow

Along the faltering west, and fill

With melody my afterglow,

And something of Song’s morning might

Linger, to make you doubt ’tis night.