Poetry Explorer- Classic Contemporary Poetry, COLLEGE NIGHT, by CHRISTINE TURNER CURTIS


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Classic and Contemporary Poetry

COLLEGE NIGHT, by                    
First Line: In that last twilight of the may we sat
Last Line: And steers to beauty through the gulfs and gales.
Subject(s): Night; Wellesley College; Bedtime


IN that last twilight of the May we sat
Upon the lake shore, wide before us spread
A dream of waters, like a wrinkled silk
Of moonstone gray and silver; overhead
A maple tree hung out its living green
And leaned above the shallow pools and made
A broad and wavering rosette of shade; --
And over the far hill and the turrets high
Lingered the luminous apricot of sky.

And as we climbed familiar steps and the halls
Loomed darkly up with windows yellow-glazed,
And slim white moving figures, and the sound
Of music playing; as we entering gazed
On that young bloom and morning loveliness --
A something sharp and mutinous smote in me,
That this bright dancing youth must pass, and be
No more the witchery of light and line
That seems the very essence of divine.

Then a clear message wove within my soul, --
Beauty has many forms; each one must serve;
And we being born are given to express
The perfect cycle, -- first of color and curve
And then the subtler beauty of the mind
And opening spirit, -- to the wider heart
There is no aging, we are each a part
Of the great fleet that trims its little sails
And steers to beauty through the gulfs and gales.





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