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Classic and Contemporary Poetry


NIGHT IN THE DESERT by CLINTON SCOLLARD

First Line: WITH STAR-DUST SCINTILLANT THE VAULT IS SOWN
Last Line: AS OF SOME UNIMAGINABLE THING!
Subject(s): CALM; DESERTS; FOOD & EATING; NIGHT; SOLITUDE; PLACID; UNDISTURBED; TRANQUILITY; BEDTIME; LONELINESS;

WITH star-dust scintillant the vault is sown;
But the vague vastitude of lower air
Is as a purple shroud about the bare
And billowy sand-waste ominously lone.
Heavy with sleep, no more the camels moan;
Slumber has sealed the pious pilgrim's prayer;
And save the lion, loping from his lair,
There is no wanderer in this desert zone.

The silence quivers if one starts from dreams,
But not with sound. The rigor of suspense
Were broken could a bird or brook but sing.
But, ah, the stillness that so breathless seems!
The awful solitude, the imminence
As of some unimaginable thing!



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