Page:The city of dreadful night - and other poems (IA cityofdreadfulni00thomrich).pdf/139

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Tried it on, burst through its shroud,
As the sun burns through a cloud:
Flung it from her split and rent;
Said: "This cerement sad was meant
For some creature stunted, thin,
Breastless, blighted, bones and skin."

Then the sage's robe she tried,
Muffling in its long folds wide
All her lithe and glorious grace:
"I should stumble every pace!
This big bag was meant to hold
Some poor sluggard fat and old,
Limping, shuffling wearily,
With a form not fit to see!"
So she flung it off again
With a gesture of disdain.

Naked as the midnight moon,
Naked as the sun of noon,
Burning too intensely bright,
Clothed in its own dazzling light;
Seen less thus than in the shroud
Of morning mist or evening cloud;
She stood terrible and proud
O'er the pallid quivering crowd.