Sudden, mysterious, every moment deepening

To some new majesty of rose or flame.

[Pg 33]

The whole broad west was like a molten sea

Of crimson. In the north the light-lined hills

Were veiled far off as with a mist of rose

Wondrous and soft. Along the darkening east

The gold of all the forests slowly changed

To purple. In the valley far before me,

Low sunk in sapphire shadows, from its hills,

Softer and lovelier than an opening flower,

Uprose a city with its sun-touched towers,

A bunch of amethysts.

Like one spell-bound

Caught in the presence of some god, I stood,

Nor felt the keen wind and the deadly air,

But watched the sun go down, and watched the gold

Fade from the town and the withdrawing hills,

Their westward shapes athwart the dusky red

Freeze into sapphire, saw the arc of rose

 Prev. P 48/184 next