Last Night - And This

by James Whitcomb Riley

Last night -- how deep the darkness was!
And well I knew its depths, because
I waded it from shore to shore,
Thinking to reach the light no more.

She would not even touch my hand. --
The winds rose and the cedars fanned
The moon out, and the stars fled back
In heaven and hid -- and all was black!

But ah! To-night a summons came,
Signed with a teardrop for a name, --
For as I wondering kissed it, lo,
A line beneath it told me so.

And now the moon hangs over me
A disk of dazzling brilliancy,
And every star-tip stabs my sight
With splintered glitterings of light!