American Poetry 1922/Places

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PLACES

I

Twilight

(Tucson)

Aloof as aged kings,
Wearing like them the purple,
The mountains ring the mesa
Crowned with a dusky light;
Many a time I watched
That coming-on of darkness
Till the stars burned through the heavens
Intolerably bright.

It was not long I live there,
But I became a woman
Under those vehement stars,
For it was there I heard
For the first time my spirit
Forging an iron rule for me,
As though with slow cold hammers
Beating out word by word;

"Take love when love is given,
But never think to find it
A sure escape from sorrow
Or a complete repose;

Only yourself can heal you,
Only yourself can lead you
Up the hard road to heaven
That ends where no one knows."


II

Full Moon

(Santa Barbara)

I listened, there was not a sound to hear
    In the great rain of moonlight pouring down,
The eucalyptus trees were carved in silver,
    And a light mist of silver lulled the town.

I saw far off the gray Pacific bearing
    A broad white disk of flame,
And on the garden-walk a snail beside me
    Tracing in crystal the slow way he came.


III

Winter Sun

(Lenox)

There was a bush with scarlet berries,
    And there were hemlocks heaped with snow,
With a sound like surf on long sea-beaches
    They took the wind and let it go.

The hills were shining in their samite,
    Fold after fold they flowed away;
"Let come what may," your eyes were saying,
    "At least we two have to-day."


IV

Evening

(Nahant)

There was an evening when the sky was clear,
    Ineffably translucent in its blue;
    The tide was falling, and the sea withdrew
In hushed and happy music from the sheer
Shadowy granite of the cliffs; and fear
    Of what life may be, and what death can do,
    Fell from us like steel armor, and we knew
The beauty of the Law that holds us here.

It was as though we saw the Secret Will,
    It was as though we floated and were free;
        In the south-west a planet shone serenely,
        And the high moon, most reticent and queenly,
Seeing the earth had darkened and grown still,
    Misted with light the meadows of the sea.


This work is in the public domain in the United States because it was published before January 1, 1929.


The longest-living author of this work died in 1933, so this work is in the public domain in countries and areas where the copyright term is the author's life plus 90 years or less. This work may be in the public domain in countries and areas with longer native copyright terms that apply the rule of the shorter term to foreign works.

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