Poetry Explorer- Classic Contemporary Poetry, SUNSET (2), by HUMBERT WOLFE


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Classic and Contemporary Poetry

SUNSET (2), by                     Poet's Biography
First Line: It is coming, it is coming
Last Line: When the smile of holy peace is left, last witness for their god!
Subject(s): Evening; Sunset; Twilight


IT is coming, it is coming,
That marvellous up-summing
Of the loveliest and grandest all in one:
The great transfiguration,
And the royal coronation
Of the Monarch of the mountains by the priestly Sun.

Watch breathlessly and hearken,
While the forest throne-steps darken
His investiture in crimson and in fire;
Not a herald-trumpet ringeth,
Not a paean echo flingeth;
There is music of a silence that is mightier far and higher.

Then, in radiant obedience,
A flush of bright allegiance
Lights up the vassal-summits and the proud peaks all around;
And a thrill of mystic glory
Quivers on the glaciers hoary,
As the ecstasy is full, and the mighty brow is crowned:

Crowned with ruby of resplendence,
In unspeakable transcendence,
'Neath a canopy of purple and of gold outspread,
With rock-sceptres upward pointing,
While the glorious anointing
Of the consecrating sunlight is poured upon his head.

Then a swift and still transition
Falls upon the gorgeous vision,
And the ruby and the fire pass noiselessly away:
But the paling of the splendor
Leaves a rose-light, clear and tender,
And lovelier than the loveliest dream that melts before the day.

Oh, to keep it! oh, to hold it
While the tremulous rays enfold it!
Oh, to drink in all the beauty, and never thirst again!
Yet less lovely if less fleeting!
For the mingling and the meeting
Of the wonder and the rapture can but overflow in pain.

It is passing, it is passing!
While the softening glow is glassing
In the crystal of the heavens all the fairest of its rose.
Ever faintly and more faintly,
Ever saintly and more saintly,
Gleam the snowy heights around us in holiest repose.

O pure and perfect whiteness!
O mystery of brightness
Upon those still, majestic brows shed solemnly abroad!
Like the calm and blessed sleeping
Of saints in Christ's own keeping,
When the smile of holy peace is left, last witness for their God!





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