The speaker has a plan: he tells Harry to whistle, not knock, because he’s slipping out to meet Kate in Castle Alley. At night, larks there sing from the attic as if the electric light were the true summer sun — a city illusion that feels both enchanted and a little sad. That off-kilter birdsong colors everything. The lover promises to come early, and together they’ll sit close, hidden away, asking for no light from lamp or sun above any summer valley. They’ll be their own private world, blind to everything outside. By naming the friends, the poem feels overheard, a scrap of real, urgent talk. The mood is hushed, secretive, brimming with suppressed excitement. It’s a stolen moment, suspended between day and night, where ordinary rules dissolve. The language is intimate, almost a whisper, turning a cramped alley into a place of limitless possibility.
To-Night — Summary
HARRY, you know at night The larks in Castle Alley Sing from the attic's height As if the electric light Were the true sun above a summer valley: Whistle, don't knock, to-night.
I shall come early, Kate: And we in Castle Alley Will sit close out of sight Alone, and ask no light Of lamp or sun above a summer valley: To-night I can stay late.