Poetry Revisited: Sunset by Constance Naden

Sunset

(from Songs and Sonnets of Springtime: 1881)

The sun is setting not in colours gay,
But pure as when he blazed with noon-day heat;
The upland path is gold before my feet,
Save where long, dancing, poplar-shadows play,
Or arching lindens cast a broader grey:
This radiant hour, when peace and passion meet,
Stirs with tumultuous breezes, freshly sweet,
The odorous languor of an August day.

Above is peace; below is gleeful strife ;
Aflame with sunshine, battling with the wind,
The trees rejoice in plenitude of life:
A sea of light is sleeping in the west,
Untroubled light, o’erflowing heart and mind
With that empyreal rapture, which is rest.

Constance Naden (1858-1889)
English writer, poet and philosopher