Poetry Explorer- Classic Contemporary Poetry, TWO PATHS, by MRS. EDGAR A. PERKINS


Poetry Explorer

Classic and Contemporary Poetry

TWO PATHS, by                    
First Line: The flaming sun sank down the western sky
Last Line: But I was not afraid.
Subject(s): Fear; Forests; Travel; Woods; Journeys; Trips


The flaming sun sank down the western sky,
Leaving behind a trail of brilliant hue:
Crimson and orange, rose and amethyst,
Which, slowly fading, turned to silver blue.
Twilight found me near a lonely wood,
Dim was the pathway in the waning light,
Black shadows crept along the mossy ground,
And like a pall descending, came the night.
I had been told this byway dark to shun,
I had been warned that danger lurked ahead;
But stubbornly I went my foolish way,
Nor did I care where others had been led.
I stumbled on past ghostly trees
Standing like sentinels tall and stark;
Their arms seemed reaching out to clasp me
As I sped onward through the dark.
Soft moving creatures crept beside me,
Blazing eyes from shapeless forms did glare,
While mist from the marshy ground arose
To fill with chilly clouds the air.
Alone at midnight in a dreary forest,
The inky blackness all about me laid,
And as I fled along the tangled pathway --
I was afraid.

Another path, another setting sun,
When all the sky was full of dazzling light:
Pink and purple, gold and heliotrope,
As daylight softly faded into night.
Twilight, and my way was up a mountain;
From rock to rock I climbed the narrow way.
Soft clouds were lazily drifting overhead,
And one bright star proclaimed the close of day.
I plodded on as other stars appeared,
Glittering gems in a curtain of blue.
The moon arose and her bright radiance
Turned to a silver carpet the evening dew.
Giant trees along the way were standing,
Their arms outstretched my way to guide,
And over stones and sand a brook was laughing,
As it went its happy way to meet the tide.
At last I reached the summit of the mountain,
Entranced, I stood the world and sky between;
The cool, clean air swept all about me;
In awe I gazed upon the wondrous scene.
Above, the glory of the bending heavens,
Below, the earth with silver moonlight sprayed.
Alone at midnight upon a mountain peak --
But I was not afraid.





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