Poems of Madison Cawein Vol. 3 — Dusk

DUSK

Corn-colored clouds upon a sky of gold, And ’mid their sheaves,--where, like a daisy-bloom Left by the reapers to the gathering gloom, The star of twilight flames,--as Ruth, ’tis told, Dreamed homesick ’mid the harvest fields of old, The Dusk goes gleaning color and perfume From Bible slopes of heaven, that illume Her pensive beauty deep in shadows stoled.

Hushed is the forest; and blue vale and hill Are still, save for the brooklet, sleepily Stumbling the stone with one foam-fluttering foot: Save for the note of one far whippoorwill, And in my heart _her_ name,--like some sweet bee Within a rose,--blowing a fairy flute.