May Night

Blue are the twilight heavens above the hill,
A yellow half-moon ‘s high within the blue,
And rosy May-night clouds are soft and still,
And all the world beside is shut from view.
The plum-trees, whitening buds and greening shoots,
Close in the dusky cottage; and beyond
The wood-thrush in the hazel-thicket flutes,
And frogs are croaking in the unseen pond.
It is the old, the odorous privacy
That once had been both peace and gentle song,
But now how such an evening troubles me
After earth’s five most awful years of wrong…
Whilst inland, from the plains, the crags, the sea,
With all the stars the dead men’s armies throng.