Poetry Explorer- Classic Contemporary Poetry, PIPE-LIGHTING TIME, by HARRY SINCLAIR LEWIS


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Classic and Contemporary Poetry

PIPE-LIGHTING TIME, by                     Poet's Biography
First Line: When twilight paints the fading wall
Last Line: Pipe-lighting time.
Alternate Author Name(s): Lewis, Sinclair
Subject(s): Smoking; Yale University; Tobacco; Pipes; Cigars; Cigarettes


WHEN twilight paints the fading wall
With gloomy shapes, grotesque and tall,
Or conjures forth a merry band
Of tinseled forms from Fairyland
To hold me in their silken thrall,
My half-unconscious fingers fall
Upon the old, familiar bowl,
The magic moment is at hand,
Pipe-lighting Time.

The dreamy smoke's slow-rising pall
Shuts out the babbling carnival;
And lo! on Spain's dim distant strand
There leaps the Future's castle grand.
'Tis gilt Ambition's hour to call, --
Pipe-lighting Time.





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