THE BIRTHNIGHT: TO F.

Dearest, it was a night

That in its darkness rocked Orion's stars;

A sighing wind ran faintly white

Along the willows, and the cedar boughs

Laid their wide hands in stealthy peace across

The starry silence of their antique moss:

No sound save rushing air

Cold, yet all sweet with Spring,

And in thy mother's arms, couched weeping there,

Thou, lovely thing.