Spring Twilight

The sun set late; and left along the west A belt of furious ruby, o'er which snows Of clouds unrolled; each cloud a mighty breast Blooming with almond-rose. The sun set late; and wafts of wind beat down, And cuffed the blossoms from the blossoming quince; Scattered the pollen from the lily's crown, And made the clover wince. By dusky forests, through whose fretful boughs In flying fragments shot the evening's flame, Adown the tangled lane the quiet cows With dreamy tinklings came. The sun set late; but hardly had he gone When o'er the moon's gold-litten crescent there, Clean Phosphor, polished as a precious stone, Burned in fair deeps of air. As from faint stars the glory waned and waned, The crickets made the oldtime garden shrill; And past the luminous pasture-lands complained The first far whippoorwill.