Classic and Contemporary Poetry
TWILIGHT CALM, by CHRISTINA GEORGINA ROSSETTI Poet Analysis Poet's Biography First Line: Oh pleasant eventide Last Line: The quiet sands have run. Alternate Author Name(s): Alleyne, Ellen; Rossetti, Christina Subject(s): Dusk | ||||||||
Oh pleasant eventide! Clouds on the western side Grow gray and grayer, hiding the warm sun: The bees and birds, their happy labors done, Seek their close nests and bide. Screened in the leafy wood The stock doves sit and brood: The very squirrel leaps from bough to bough But lazily; pauses; and settles now Where once he stored his food. One by one the flowers close, Lily and dewy rose Shutting their tender petals from the moon: The grasshoppers are still; but not so soon Are still the noisy crows. The dormouse squats and eats Choice little dainty bits Beneath the spreading roots of a broad lime; Nibbling his fill he stops from time to time And listens where he sits. From far the lowings come Of cattle driven home: From farther still the wind brings fitfully The vast continual murmur of the sea, Now loud, now almost dumb. The gnats whirl in the air, The evening gnats; and there The owl opes broad his eyes and wings to sail For prey; the bat wakes; and the shell-less snail Comes forth, clammy and bare. Hark! that's the nightingale, Telling the selfsame tale Her song told when this ancient earth was young: So echoes answered when her song was sung In the first wooded vale. In separate herds the deer Lie; here the bucks, and here The does, and by its mother sleeps the fawn: Through all the hours of night until the dawn They sleep, forgetting fear. The hare sleeps where it lies, With wary half-closed eyes; The cock has ceased to crow, the hen to cluck: Only the fox is out, some heedless duck Or chicken to surprise. Remote, each single star Comes out, till there they are All shining brightly. How the dews fall damp! While close at hand the glowworm lights her lamp. Or twinkles from afar. But evening now is done As much as if the sun Day-giving had arisen in the East -- For night has come; and the great calm has ceased. The quiet sands have run. | Discover our Poem Explanations and Poet Analyses!Other Poems of Interest...THE HOUR BETWEEN DOG AND WOLF: 4. THE HOUR BETWEEN DOG by LAURE-ANNE BOSSELAAR TWILIGHT SONG by EDWIN ARLINGTON ROBINSON TWILIGHT by HENRY WADSWORTH LONGFELLOW TWILIGHT AT THE HEIGHTS by CINCINNATUS HEINE MILLER TWILIGHT AT SEA by AMELIA B. WELBY WHY DID YOU DEPART AT DUSK? by CLARISSA M. BAILEY A SONG OF DAWN AT DUSK by WILLIAM ROSE BENET IT IS FINISHED' by CHRISTINA GEORGINA ROSSETTI ITALIA, IO TI SALUTO!' by CHRISTINA GEORGINA ROSSETTI THE HEART KNOWETH ITS OWN BITTERNESS' (2) by CHRISTINA GEORGINA ROSSETTI |
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