The slight chill sharpens, The air is blurred, Drugged with silence Numb with thought of the nearing winter; The afternoon loiters, lingers and dreams Dully of nothing. Through the silence Wires hum faintly; Idly heeding, the ear Reluctantly rousing, marks Far and strange in the air Blending with the wires yet separate, A larger humming. The sound of a distant plane Driving from east to west Steadily with neither swerve nor faltering Above the earth. And with it men, Unknown, invisible, Upheld securely; The air living against their faces Cold with strength, The sun still high; Men with seeking thoughts that fly ahead Outstripping the plane. The sound of the motor, Disembodied, like air itself made audible Fades to a pulse-beat, A singing in the ears, Ceases. The wires hum through the silence In the small vacuum of this close walled space; The sun sinks, The light blurs, silently darkening; In the empty air The slow chill sharpens. | Discover our Poem Explanations and Poet Analyses!Other Poems of Interest...THE SAD SONG, FR. THE CAPTAIN by JOHN FLETCHER CUSTER'S LAST CHARGE [JUNE 25, 1876] by FREDERICK WHITTAKER UNTO US A CHILD IS BORN by AGNES H. BEGBIE PSALM 137: EXILE by OLD TESTAMENT BIBLE THE ZONNEBEKE ROAD by EDMUND CHARLES BLUNDEN THE ROCK OF LIBERTY; A PILGRIM ODE, 1620-1920: 3. ACHIEVEMENT by ABBIE FARWELL BROWN |