From “Paradise Lost,” Book IV. NOW came still evening on, and twilight gray Had in her sober livery all things clad; Silence accompanied; for beast and bird, They to their grassy couch, these to their nests, Were slunk, all but the wakeful nightingale; She all night long her amorous descant sung. Silence was pleased: now glowed the firmament With living sapphires; Hesperus, that led The starry host, rode brightest, till the moon Rising in clouded majesty, at length Apparent queen, unveiled her peerless light, And o’er the dark her silver mantle threw.
Evening in Paradise
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