Moonlight North And South

Love, we have heard together
    The North Sea sing his tune,
And felt the wind's wild feather
    Brush past our cheeks at noon,
And seen the cloudy weather
    Made wondrous with the moon.

Where loveliness is rarest,
    'Tis also prized the most:
The moonlight shone her fairest
    Along that level coast
Where sands and dunes the barest,
    Of beauty seldom boast,

Far from that bleak and rude land
    An exile I remain
Fixed in a fair and good land,
    A valley and a plain
Rich in fat fields and woodland,
    And watered well with rain.

Last night the full moon's splendour
    Shone down on Taunton Dene,
And pasture fresh and tender,
    And coppice dusky green,
The heavenly light did render
    In one enchanted scene,

One fair unearthly vision.
    Yet soon mine eyes were cloyed,
And found those fields Elysian
    Too rich to be enjoyed.
Or was it our division
    Made all my pleasure void?

Across the window glasses
    The curtain then I drew,
And, as a sea-bird passes,
    In sleep my spirit flew
To grey and windswept grasses
    And moonlit sands--and you.