Flint and Feather (1914)/Part 3/The Lifting of the Mist

From Wikisource
Jump to navigation Jump to search
151679Flint and Feather (1914)Part III. Other Poems — The Lifting of the MistE. Pauline Johnson

All the long day the vapours played
  At blindfold in the city streets,
Their elfin fingers caught and stayed
  The sunbeams, as they wound their sheets
Into a filmy barricade
  'Twixt earth and where the sunlight beats.

A vagrant band of mischiefs these,
  With wings of grey and cobweb gown;
They live along the edge of seas,
  And creeping out on foot of down,
They chase and frolic, frisk and tease
  At blind-man's buff with all the town.

And when at eventide the sun
  Breaks with a glory through their grey,
The vapour-fairies, one by one,
Outspread their wings and float away
In clouds of colouring, that run
  Wine-like along the rim of day.

Athwart the beauty and the breast
  Of purpling airs they twirl and twist,
Then float away to some far rest,
  Leaving the skies all colour-kiss't—
A glorious and a golden West
  That greets the Lifting of the Mist.