Classic Poem

We sat in the perfect moonlight;
The stars were dim and rare,
And above us the elm-trees rustled
In the waves of the cool night-air.

From the olives and vineyard near us
The kiou-owl plaintively cried,
And away o'er the misty hollows
Its mate with a wail replied.

The peasant sang in the distance,
The watchdog barked at the star,
And the clack of the cradles beating the hemp
Came faint from the farms afar.

We talked of the times of our childhood,
Of the days for ever flown,
Of their games and their jests and their sorrows,
And the playmates we had known;

And then there came o'er us a silence,
While the cypresses sighed overhead,—
And dreaming we sat and listened
To the voices of the dead.