 | The Poet and Nature and The Morning Road |  |
THE TEMPLE OF NIGHT.
Columns of crystal lazulite
The stormy vapors pile,
Building a temple, vast, where Night,
Clothed like a queen in cloudy white,
On her dark face a smile,
Moves down a Titan aisle.
The stormy vapors pile,
Building a temple, vast, where Night,
Clothed like a queen in cloudy white,
On her dark face a smile,
Moves down a Titan aisle.
A robe of twice-dyed byssus drifts
Around her manifold,
As in her hands the moon she lifts,
Her beauty glimmering starry gifts
Of clustered pearl and gold,
King Chaos gave of old.
Around her manifold,
As in her hands the moon she lifts,
Her beauty glimmering starry gifts
Of clustered pearl and gold,
King Chaos gave of old.
Around her troops a spirit-train,
Transparent as the air;
Peris and Afrites of the rain,
And Deev and Jinn, who bind again
The winds within their lair,
With wildly flowing hair.
Transparent as the air;
Peris and Afrites of the rain,
And Deev and Jinn, who bind again
The winds within their lair,
With wildly flowing hair.
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The azure darkness of her face
Assumes its old time charm;
And, lo! again, in pearly lace,
She walks; the moon—a crystal vase,
Under one cloudy arm—
Above the world's alarm.
Assumes its old time charm;
And, lo! again, in pearly lace,
She walks; the moon—a crystal vase,
Under one cloudy arm—
Above the world's alarm.
| The Poet and Nature and The Morning Road | |