AN EVENING IN OCTOBER

Evening has thrown her hushing garment round

This little world; no harsh or jarring sound

Disturbs my reverie. The room is dark,

And kneeling at the window I can mark

Each light and shadow of the scene below.

The placid glistening pools, the streams that flow

Through the red earth, left by the hurrying tide;

The ridge of mountain on the farther side

Shewing more black for many twinkling lights

That come and go about the gathering heights.

Below me lie great wharves, dreary and dim,

And lumber houses crowding close and grim

Like giant shadowed guardians of the port,

With towering chimneys outlined tall and swart

Against the silver pools. Two figures pace

The wharf in ghostly silence, face from face.

O'er the black line of mountain, silver-clear

In faint rose-tint of vaporous evening air,

Sinketh the bright suspicion of a wing,

The slim curved moon, who in shy triumphing

Hideth her face. Above, the rose-tint pales

Into a silver opal, hills and dales

Of cloudy glory, fading high alone

Into a tender blue-grey monotone.—

And then I thought: “ere that fair, slender moon

Has rounded grown and full, ( so soon, so soon! )

Our hearts’ desire accomplished we shall see

Dear one, all light, and joy, and ecstasy!”