Page:Oregon Historical Quarterly vol. 1.djvu/453

Rh And sits him like a statue there,

Transfigured in the sunset sea

A bronze, bare sphynx of mystery!

A moment thus, in wonder lost,

His eagle plumes all backward tossed,

Then wheels again, as swift as wind,

The wild hair floating free behind.

And sunset's crinkled surges pour

Along an empty waste once more!

But you, since that fantastic shade

Across ydur desert path has played,

Distrust the very ground you tread,

And shiver with a nameless dread

Till stars drop crimson, and the sky

Is wan with heartless treachery.



For many days a form of white

Has flashed and faded in your sight

In fleeting glimpses, as of wings,

Our God's bright palm in beckonings.

It is a secret nursed of each

You dare not give the thought in speech,

So wierdly solemn is the sign
 * As if, upon the western stairs,
 * The angels of a thousand prayers

Were come with sacred bread and wine.

Again, the still, enchanted hour

Of sunset burns in crimson flower,

And purple-hearted shadows sleep

Like clustered pansies, warm and deep,
 * Eastward of wreathen crag and wall.

The road that wound and wound all day

In many a dark and devious way

At last with one swift curve ascends

A rolling plain that breaks and bends
 * Westward, till rosy curtains fall
 * O'er mountains massed and magical.

Resplendent as a pearly tent

Upon the fir-fringed battlement-

Serene in sunset gold and rose,

A pyramid of splendor glows,

So vast and calm and bright your dream

Is dust and ashes in its gleam.

A maiden speaks "He led us far

It is the golden western star!"

And then a youth "Our goal is won

'Tis the pavilion of the sun."

A gray sage, then, in undertone

"It must be Hood, so grand and lone

The shining citadel and throne

Of Terminus, that Roman god

Who marked the line that legions trod,

And set the limits of the world

Where Caesar's battle flags were furled!

Oh, for the days of dark-eyed prophetess

Who sang in Syrian wilderness


 * The gilded chariots' overthrow,