Clarel/Part 4/Canto 24

24. Twilight
"Over the river

In gloaming, ah, still do ye plain? Dovc dove in the mangroves, How dear is thy pain!

"Sorrow--but fondled; Reproaches that never upbraid Spite the passion, the yearning Of love unrepaid.

"Teach me, oh! teach me Thy cadence, that Inez may thrill

With the bliss of the sadness, And love have his will!"

Through twilight of mild evening pale, As now returning slow they farc In dubious keeping with the dale And legends, floating came that air From one invisible in shade, Singing and lightly sauntering on Toward the cloisters. Pause they made; But he a lateral way had won: Viewless he passed, as might a wave Rippling, which doth a frigate lave At anchor in the midnight road.

Clarel a fleeting thought bestowed: Unkenned! to thee what thoughts belong-- Announced by such a tropic song.