O sweet blue eve that seems so loath to die,
Trailing the sunset glory into night,
Within the soft, cool strangeness of thy light,
My heart doth seem to find its sanctuary.
The day doth verge with all its secret care,
The thrush is lilting vespers on the thorn;
In Nature’s inner heart seems to be born
A sweet serenity; and over there
Within the shadows of the stealing Night,
Beneath the benison of all her stars
Men, stirr’d to passion by relentless Mars,
Laughing at Death, wage an unceasing fight.
The thunder of the guns, the scream of shells
Now seem to rend the placid evening air:
Yet as the night is lit by many a flare
The thrush his love in one wild lyric tells.
O sweet blue eve! Lingering awhile with thee,
Before the earth with thy sweet dews are wet,
My heart all but thy beauty shall forget
And find itself in thy serenity.
(John William Streets)
More Poetry from John William Streets:
John William Streets Poems based on Topics: Night, Death & Dying, Man, Light, Nature, Beauty- The Undying Splendour (John William Streets Poems)
- The Wayside Cross (John William Streets Poems)
- The Dead (John William Streets Poems)
- Hymn to Life: Hurdcott Camp (John William Streets Poems)
- Sonnets of Twilight and Youth (John William Streets Poems)
- The Miracle of the Cross (John William Streets Poems)