The wild hair floating free behind,
And sunset's crinkled surges pour
Along an empty waste once more.
But you, since that fantastic shade
Across your desert path has played,
Distrust the very ground you tread,
And shiver with a nameless dread
Till stars drop crimson and the sky
Is wan with heartless treachery.
And sunset's crinkled surges pour
Along an empty waste once more.
But you, since that fantastic shade
Across your desert path has played,
Distrust the very ground you tread,
And shiver with a nameless dread
Till stars drop crimson and the sky
Is wan with heartless treachery.
***
For many days a form of white
Has flashed and faded in your sight
In fleeting glimpses as of wings;
Our God's bright palm in beckonings.
It is a secret nursed of each—
You dare not give the thought in speech,
So weirdly solemn is the sign,
As if upon the western stairs
The angel of a thousand prayers
Were come with sacned bread and wine.
Again the still, enchanted hour
Of sunset burns in crimson flower,
And purple-hearted shadows sleep
Like clustered pansies, warm and deep.
Eastward of wreathen crag and wall
The trail that wound and wound all day
In many a dark and devious way
At last with one swift curve ascends
A rolling plain, that breaks and bends
Westward, till rosy curtains fall
Has flashed and faded in your sight
In fleeting glimpses as of wings;
Our God's bright palm in beckonings.
It is a secret nursed of each—
You dare not give the thought in speech,
So weirdly solemn is the sign,
As if upon the western stairs
The angel of a thousand prayers
Were come with sacned bread and wine.
Again the still, enchanted hour
Of sunset burns in crimson flower,
And purple-hearted shadows sleep
Like clustered pansies, warm and deep.
Eastward of wreathen crag and wall
The trail that wound and wound all day
In many a dark and devious way
At last with one swift curve ascends
A rolling plain, that breaks and bends
Westward, till rosy curtains fall
