Summary

The speaker describes a forest at night. A black cat wanders; flowers are lit with the light of a quarter moon. The garden itself dreams, and fireflies blink in and out. Roses, heliotropes, poppies, alyssum, and lilies are some of the flowers that populate this place. Leaves fall into a nearby fountain. The speaker is joined by someone silent and beautiful. The speaker reflects on the passage of time, and what will happen once they’re gone.

Analysis

“The Garden By Moonlight” is a study in sensory language and musicality. The title introduces the setting, a sacred space personified by the speaker and given an overarching, near-mythic presence. The opening line establishes the poem’s simple, concrete language, a tenet of Amy Lowell’s imagist poetic movement: “A black cat among roses” (Line 1). The cat is not given any subjective description or agency of...