"This is the hour," she said, "of transmutation: It is the eucharist of the evening, changing All things to beauty. Now the ancient river, That all day under the arch was polished jade, Becomes the ghost of a river, thinly gleaming Under a silver cloud. . . . It is not water: It is that azure stream in which the stars Bathe at the daybreak, and become immortal. . . ." "And the moon," said I -- not thus to be outdone -- "What of the moon? Over the dusty plane-trees Which crouch in the dusk above their feeble lanterns, Each coldly lighted by his tiny faith; The moon, the waxen moon, now almost full, Creeps whitely up. . . . Westward the waves of cloud, Vermilion, crimson, violet, stream on the air, Shatter to golden flakes in the icy green Translucency of twilight. . . . And the moon Drinks up their light, and as they fade or darken, Brightens. . . . O monstrous miracle of the twilight, That one should live because the others die!" "Strange too," she answered, "that upon this azure Pale-gleaming ghostly stream, impalpable -- So faint, so fine that scarcely it bears up The petals that the lantern strews upon it, -- These great black barges float like apparitions, Loom in the silver of it, beat upon it, Moving upon it as dragons move on air." "Thus always," then I answered, -- looking never Toward her face, so beautiful and strange It grew, with feeding on the evening light, -- "The gross is given, by inscrutable God, Power to beat wide wings upon the subtle. Thus we ourselves, so fleshly, fallible, mortal, Stand here, for all our foolishness, transfigured: Hung over nothing in an arch of light While one more evening like a wave of silence Gathers the stars together and goes out." | Discover our Poem Explanations and Poet Analyses!Other Poems of Interest...SEVEN TWILIGHTS: 1 by CONRAD AIKEN CONTRA MORTEM: THE BEING AS MOMENT by HAYDEN CARRUTH THE SMALLISH SON by HAYDEN CARRUTH WESTERN CIVILIZATION by JAMES GALVIN BRIGHTNESS AS A POIGNANT LIGHT by DAVID IGNATOW |