Poem by Alan Seeger

Thirty Sonnets. 1. Sonnet 1. Down the strait vistas where a city street

Down the strait vistas where a city street
Fades in pale dust and vaporous distances,
Stained with far fumes the light grows less and less
And the sky reddens round the day's retreat.
Now out of orient chambers, cool and sweet,
Like Nature's pure lustration, Dusk comes down.
Now the lamps brighten and the quickening town
Rings with the trample of returning feet.
And Pleasure, risen from her own warm mould
Sunk all the drowsy and unloved daylight
In layers of odorous softness, Paphian girls
Cover with gauze, with satin, and with pearls,
Crown, and about her spangly vestments fold
The ermine of the empire of the Night. 

1. Tithonus
2. Thirty Sonnets. 30. At the Tomb of Napoleon before the Elections in America--November, 1912
3. Sonnet 9. Well, seeing I have no hope, then let us part
4. Thirty Sonnets. 22. With a Copy of Shakespeare's Sonnets on Leaving College
5. All That's Not Love...

Print

1384 Views

Last Poems

To Russian version