Page:Poems, Alan Seeger, 1916.djvu/67

 And over plain and far sierra spread

The fulgent rays of fading afternoon,

Showing each utmost peak and watershed

All clarified, each tassel and festoon

Of floating cloud embroidered overhead,

Like lotus-leaves on bluest waters strewn,

Flushing with rose, while all breathes fresh and free

In peace and amplitude and bland tranquillity.

Dear were such evenings to this gentle pair;

Love's tide that launched on with a blast too strong

Sweeps toward the foaming reef, the hidden snare,

Baffling with fond illusion's siren-song,

Too faint, on idle shoals, to linger there

Far from Youth's glowing dream, bore them along,

With purple sail and steered by seraph hands

To isles resplendent in the sunset of romance.

And out of this old house a flowery fane,

A bridal bower, a pearly pleasure-dome,

They built, and furnished it with gold and grain,

And bade all spirits of beauty hither come,

And wingéd Love to enter with his train

And bless their pillow, and in this his home

Make them his priests as Hero was of yore

In her sweet girlhood by the blue Dardanian shore.

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