BEHIND a screen of western hills The sunset color fades to-night; Along the arching corridors Long shadows steal with footsteps light. The banners of the day are furled; Thro' darkening space the twilight creeps And smooths the forehead of the world Until he sleeps. The oak-trees closer draw their hoods; A bird, belated, wings his dim, Uncertain flight, and far above A star looks down and laughs at him; The sky and mountains melt in one; Tall gum-trees range their ranks around; The white walk marks its length upon The velvet ground. From out the dusk the chimney points, Like guiding finger, to the skies; Down drops the curtain of the night, And all the plain in darkness lies, When, as the college buildings seem To lose their form in shapeless mass, The lights shine out as poppies gleam Amid the grass. | Discover our Poem Explanations and Poet Analyses!Other Poems of Interest...A NEGRO LOVE SONG by PAUL LAURENCE DUNBAR SONNET: 24. THE STREET by JAMES RUSSELL LOWELL UPON THE CIRCUMCISION by JOHN MILTON A WINTER PIECE by THOMAS BAILEY ALDRICH AMPHIPOLIS by ANTIPATER OF THESSALONICA TWELVE SONNETS: 2 by GEORGE BARLOW (1847-1913) COMMENDATORY VERSES TO WILLIAM BROWNE'S 'BRITANNIA'S PASTORALS' by WILLIAM BASSE |