Crepuscule

←It may not always be so

Crepuscule  (1920)  by Edward Estlin Cummings

Finis→

First published in Eight Harvard Poets in 1917.

I WILL wade out
                    till my thighs are steeped in burn-
ing flowers
I will take the sun in my mouth
and leap into the ripe air
                                   Alive
                                          with closed eyes
to dash against darkness
                                    in the sleeping curves of my
body
Shall enter fingers of smooth mastery
with chasteness of sea-girls
                                        Will I complete the mystery
of my flesh
I will rise
            After a thousand years
lipping
flowers
          And set my teeth in the silver of the moon

OVER silent waters
                          day descending
                                                 night ascending
floods the gentle glory of the sunset
In a golden greeting
                            splendidly to westward
as pale twilight
                      trem-
                              bles
                                     into
                                           Darkness
comes the last light's gracious exhortation
                                                     Lifting up to peace
so when life shall falter
                                 standing on the shores of the
eternal
god
       May I behold my sunset
Flooding
            over silent waters

This work is in the public domain in the United States because it was published before January 1, 1923. It may be copyrighted outside the U.S. (see Help:Public domain).