A Reed by the River/Dusk

by Virginia Woodward Cloud

DUSK

Beyond the burning rhapsody of noon,
The wind's elusive harp-note in the trees,
Between the sunset and the primrose noon,
There is a rapture all unknown of these,—
The harmony of twilight, Nature's note,
Prolonged, pellucid, subtler far than song,
Bearing the lifted soul till it doth float
Upon the heart of night and find it strong;
Against this bar the tides of tumult fail
And waves slip back into a silent deep;
The world, beneath a white and windless sail,
Drifts outward to the vaster sea of sleep,
And thought, starlike, doth rise above Time's shoal
To find thee still—thou starlight of my soul!