GREEN CANDLES

Sun (Auckland), Volume III, Issue 765, 11 September 1929, Page 15

GREEN CANDLES

(Second-prize Poem) Good-night . . . The green candles are snuffed, The AvindOAvs wide to the nor-’west Avind; It is Avarm, and the night is clear. I love the nor’-Avest wind . . . It stirs in tho lazy willows — a witch Avind That keeps even the winking stars aAvake. There is a smell of damp weeds in the air And the sound of lap-lapping from the lake. The moon is low —a magic yellow moon That hangs so lightly in the wide clear sky; The night-birds call across the windsAvept plain, And things out in the eerie night go by. Good-night . . . The distant murmurs rise and fall; The mountains loom like hulking giants in black: The fir trees in the shadows wind their arms About each other as they moan and crack. I have loved the day and the warm bright sun, And all the glorious things. Now a blue mist falls gently . . . No longer the whirr of Avings. Good-night . . . The little blurs of light are fading, And ghostly shapes move out in cloaks of grey; The AA’ind is warm, the green candles are snuffed; Good-night ... It has been a wonderful day. —Harvest Moon (Alma Chamberlain).