The Moonlight
John Joy
Bell
Bell, John Joy
Metadata research and editing
DVPP Project Team
Kailey
Fukushima
University of Victoria Digital Victorian Periodical Poetry Project
Victoria, BC, Canada
In the public domain
Poem signed J. J. Bell.
Chambers’s Journal ledger indicates that Bell was paid 10s 6d for the poem (NLS Dep 341/371). (AC)
Chambers’s Edinburgh Journal
6
4
161
80
How like the moonlight o’er the sea
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The Moonligh
t.
How like the moonlight o’er the sea
Is to your love o’er life for me !
An hour ago the waters lay
Beneath the twilight, dull and gray ;
Neither in comfort nor distress,
Calm with an utter listlessness ;
Sick, as it seemed, of ebb and flow,
Tired of the way they had to go.
But, faint at first, beyond the haze
The moon appeared with softened gaze.
And shyly o’er the waters shone
And laid her fingers white thereon,
Until the weary wilderness
Was thrilled and throve at her caress ;
And glorified, despite the mist,
The sea attained to joy, and kissed
With eager lips the hands of her,
Telling the very sands of her.
Can you remember, dear, my night ?
Can life and I forget your light ?
How like the moonlight o’er the sea
Is to your love o’er life for me !
J. J. Bell
.