A Walk By Moonlight

H L V Derozio's poem, 'A Walk by Moonlight' describes the stages of awakening of the senses as a casual walk with friends gives him an experience in which he becomes enriched as his deeper senses are stirred and it turns into something more than just an appreciation of a moon light walk. Where he becomes philosophical and begins to search for life's meaning in everything around him at that moment as he progresses on a note of introspection and reflection.

The poem begins with the poet recollecting how the previous night was "a lovely night" in which he "was very blest", making it so special, so much so that it would be in his "memory a happy spot to rest" as he would forever retain it in his mind and cherish it. He then goes on talk of how memory holds on to lovely moments and can be a valuable faculty ("there are in the backward past soft hours to which we turn"). These "hours which at a distance, mildly shine", moments which as time passes may dim but will always "shine on but never burn." The poet states that the experience he had the previous night was one such experience which will never fade in his memory as it was deeply stirred. He then goes on to narrate the incident which made his "heart so very light" he thought "it could have flown"

He had been out to see a friend, where he met a few of his other friends, all of the same nature and temperament as him. ("Like minds to like minds ever tend, an universal law") On his way back he had asked "Come who will walk with me" and three whom he loved joined him. The poet then describes the night it self as he personifies the moon who "stood silent in the sky and looked upon the earth" while "the clouds divided, passing by in homage to her worth." Almost as if, the moon was a form of royalty. He even noticed that "there was a dance among the leaves" which he supposed they were doing as they were "rejoicing at her power." The moon who he felt clothed them in "robes... of silver weaves" during that "one mystic hour" when they were walking. He felt he heard "a song among the winds" which seemed like they were "hymning her influence" as though a band of musicians was creating theses sounds which was so intense, uplifting and spiritual it could blend "the soul to thought intense." What emerges from this description of the night is one that makes it seem mystical, as though every aspect of nature was induced with life in some form. In fact, he admits that "there was something in the night, that with its magic wound" them for they "not only saw but felt the moonlight" around them.

There is a sudden shift from the description of scenic beauty and from the sensory observations to one of philosophical awakening as he asks a rhetorical question of "how vague are all the mysteries which bind us to our earth" that makes us one with the universe and "how far they send into the heart their tones of holy mirth" as they evoke in our hearts a deep sense of joy and delight. He then remarks of how when one acquires spiritual awareness the beautiful sights of various aspects of nature suddenly seem so much more beautiful which he enjoys as "proud he stands in his own spirit's light"

The poet then observes how "when, like a thing that is not ours this earthliness goes by and we behold the spiritualness