Nights of music, nights of loving,
Lost too soon, remembered long.
When we went by moonlight roving,
Hearts all love and lips all song.
When this faithful lute recorded
All my spirit felt to thee;
And that smile the song rewarded —
Worth Whole years of fame to me!
Nights of song, and nights of splendor,
Filled with joys too sweet to last —
Joys that, like the star-light, tender,
While they shore no shadow cast.
Tho’ all other happy hours
From my fading memory fly,
Of, that starlight, of those bowers,
Not a beam, a leaf may die!