• From “Queen Mab”
    IF solitude hath ever led thy steps
    To the wild ocean’s echoing shore,
      And thou hast lingered there
      Until the sun’s broad orb
    Seemed resting on the burnished wave,
      Thou must have marked the lines
    Of purple gold that motionless
        Hung o’er the sinking sphere:
      Thou must have marked the billowy...

  • There ’s a city that lies in the Kingdom of Clouds,
      In the glorious country on high,
    Which an azure and silvery curtain enshrouds,
      To screen it from mortal eye;

    A city of temples and turrets of gold,
      That gleam by a sapphire sea,
    Like jewels more splendid than earth may behold,
      Or are dreamed of by you and by me.

    And...

  • An ignorance a Sunset

    Confer upon the Eye —

    Of Territory — Color —

    Circumference — Decay —


    Its Amber Revelation

    Exhilirate — Debase —

    Omnipotence' inspection

    Of Our inferior face —


    And when the solemn features

    Confirm — in Victory —

    We start —...

  • Bring me the sunset in a cup,

    Reckon the morning's flagons up

    And say how many Dew,

    Tell me how far the morning leaps —

    Tell me what time the weaver sleeps

    Who spun the breadth of blue!


    Write me how many notes there be

    In the new Robin's ecstasy

    Among astonished boughs —...

  • How the old Mountains drip with Sunset

    How the Hemlocks burn —

    How the Dun Brake is draped in Cinder

    By the Wizard Sun —


    How the old Steeples hand the Scarlet

    Till the Ball is full —

    Have I the lip of the Flamingo

    That I dare to tell?


    Then, how the Fire ebbs like...

  • Fair is the sun when first he flames above,
    Flinging his joy down in a happy beam;

    And happy he who can salute with love
    The sunset far more...

  • Sunset at Night — is natural —

    But Sunset on the Dawn

    Reverses Nature — Master —

    So Midnight's — due — at Noon.


    Eclipses be — predicted —

    And Science bows them in —

    But do one face us suddenly —

    Jehovah's Watch — is wrong.

  • Sunset that screens, reveals —

    Enhancing what we see

    By menaces of Amethyst

    And Moats of Mystery.

  • This is the land the sunset washes,

    These are the banks of the Yellow Sea ;

    Where it rose, or whither it rushes,

    These are the western mystery !


    Night after night her purple traffic

    Strews the landing with opal bales ;

    ...

  • This — is the land — the Sunset washes —

    These — are the Banks of the Yellow Sea —

    Where it rose — or whither it rushes —

    These — are the Western Mystery!


    Night after Night

    Her purple traffic

    Strews the landing with Opal Bales —

    Merchantmen — poise upon Horizons —

    Dip — and...