Page:Southern Life in Southern Literature.djvu/450

432 The gray grows darker and denser Till it and the earth are one; A star swings out like a censer, And the brief warm night is begun. The brown moth floats and poises Like a leaf in the windless air; Aroused by insect noises The gray toad leaves his lair; Sounding the dusk depth quickly The bull bats fall and rise, And out of the grasses thickly Swarm glistering fireflies. Now darkness heavy, oppressive, And silent completes the gloom. The breathless night is excessive With fragrance of perfume, For the land is enmeshed and ablaze With vines that blossom and trail, Embanking the traveled ways And festooning the fences of rail. Afar in the southern sky Heat-lightning flares and glows, Vividly tinting the clouds that lie At rest with a shimmer of rose Tremulous, flitting, uncertain, As a mystical light might shine From under an ebon curtain Before a terrible shrine.