Poems (Whitney)/Evening

by Anne Whitney

EVENING.

The sun has dropped down through the west;
 And twilight deepens on:—
A wink and a pale wink, here and there,
 So the stars come, one by one.

A thoughtful life is a pleasant life—
 Yea—dreams in a wild-brier lane;
The air soft kindling with the moon
 Midway of her stately reign.

Where the broad light lies wavelessly,
 Where the toiling sun has lain,
A tree and its shadow, wondrous still,
 Ruling the grassy plain!

The river to the distant sea,
 Murmuring, murmuring goes;
Type of a life that broods and sings
 On unto its quiet close.

Keen firefly in the barberry shade,
 That warm'st it with such busy light,
Bear with me—rest is deeper life,
 The centering of faith and might.

Thanks—that along the shifting sands,
 As moves our sleepless tent,
Moments of higher calm are given,
 And of more true content!

Content; the world falls off, and leaves
 A measure nobler grained,
By which I try the seeming lost,
 As well as seeming gained.

Beauty that fillest, why makest sad?
 Thou hast no want, no haste;
Is it that thou o'erflowest my soul,
 And I lament the waste?

Dear heart, whose pulses with my own
 Keep their mysterious move,
That fillest every transient pause,
 With music of thy love;

Art not thou patient too to-night,
 Divining what true strength,
What life is ours, what joy to come,
 And far-off calm at length?