Poems (Henley)/The wan sun westers, faint and slow
Appearance
XIV
The wan sun westers, faint and slow;The eastern distance glimmers gray;An eerie haze comes creeping lowAcross the little, lonely bay;And from the sky-line far awayAbout the quiet heaven are spreadMysterious hints of dying day,Thin, delicate dreams of green and red.
And weak, reluctant surges lapAnd rustle round and down the strand.No other sound . . . If it should hap,The ship that sails from fairy-land!The silken shrouds with spells are manned,The hull is magically scrolled,The squat mast lives, and in the sandThe gold prow-griffin claws a hold.
It steals to seaward silently;Strange fish-folk follow thro' the gloom;Great wings flap overhead; I seeThe Castle of the Drowsy DoomVague thro' the changeless twilight loom,Enchanted, hushed. And ever thereShe slumbers in eternal bloom,Her cushions hid with golden hair.
1875