Shut Out That Moon

Close up the casement, draw the blind,      Shut out that stealing moon,     She wears too much the guise she wore      Before our lutes were strewn     With years-deep dust, and names we read      On a white stone were hewn.     Step not out on the dew-dashed lawn      To view the Lady's Chair,     Immense Orion's glittering form,      The Less and Greater Bear:     Stay in; to such sights we were drawn      When faded ones were fair.     Brush not the bough for midnight scents      That come forth lingeringly,     And wake the same sweet sentiments      They breathed to you and me     When living seemed a laugh, and love      All it was said to be.     Within the common lamp-lit room      Prison my eyes and thought;     Let dingy details crudely loom,      Mechanic speech be wrought:     Too fragrant was Life's early bloom,      Too tart the fruit it brought!     1904.