Moonlight in the Desert

We saw the moon ascend the skies
As though to music chorded deep, —
Sweet, super-earthly harmonies
Swept through the great, calm halls of Sleep.

Then in ethereal equipoise
It seemed to hang, a bubble blown
Of tenuous gold, as pure as joy's
First ecstasy in Eden known.

And lo, a miracle! for all
That arid waste, compact of gloom,
And unto desolation thrall,
Was as a garden girt with bloom.

Topaz and veinèd amethyst
The paths that wended up and down;
And in a veil of violet mist
The distances appeared to drown.

Despite we knew that dawn would show
But hideous sand-blight to our eyes,
So strong the spell it was as though
We stood in Allah's paradise.