Sonnet I

Alan Seeger

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.