Poetry Explorer


Classic and Contemporary Poetry


VARIATIONS: 16 by CONRAD AIKEN

Poet Analysis

First Line: AGAINST AN ORANGE TWILIGHT SKY
Last Line: THE STREETLAMP GLEAMS LIKE AN EVIL EYE.
Subject(s): NATURE;

Against an orange twilight sky
The street lamp gleams like clearer fire,
The cold wind spills the huddling leaves,
And cold bells, in the sombre spire,
Shake the wind with a savage sound . . .
The streetlamp gleams like a golden eye.

This dust will be possessed of tongues,
These leaves will find a million voices,
These stones will murmur and seize our feet,
These boughs of trees will writhe and beat . . .
Against an orange twilight sky
The streetlamp burns like a golden eye.

The earth's edge, growing black, swings up
With sinister and enormous arc;
The yellow star that came to swim
Silently in the golden sky
Is caught and crushed by that black rim . . .
The streetlamp gleams like an evil eye.



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