Sunset Wings
Dante Gabriel Rossetti 1828 (London) – 1882 (Birchington-on-Sea)
TO-NIGHT this sunset spreads two golden wings
Cleaving the western sky;
Winged too with wind it is, and winnowings
Of birds; as if the day's last hour in rings
Of strenuous flight must die.
Sun-steeped in fire, the homeward pinions sway
Above the dovecote-tops;
And clouds of starlings, ere they rest with day,
Sink, clamorous like mill-waters, at wild play,
By turns in every copse:
Each tree heart-deep the wrangling rout receives,—
Save for the whirr within,
You could not tell the starlings from the leaves;
Then one great puff of wings, and the swarm heaves
Away with all its din.
Even thus Hope's hours, in ever-eddying flight,
To many a refuge tend;
With the first light she laughed, and the last light
Glows round her still; who natheless in the night
At length must make an end.
And now the mustering rooks innumerable
Together sail and soar,
While for the day's death, like a tolling knell,
Unto the heart they seem to cry, Farewell,
No more, farewell, no more!
Is Hope not plumed, as 'twere a fiery dart?
And oh! thou dying day,
Even as thou goest must she too depart,
And Sorrow fold such pinions on the heart
As will not fly away?
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Submitted on May 13, 2011
Modified on March 05, 2023
- 1:03 min read
- 41 Views
Quick analysis:
Scheme | ABAABCDCCAEFEEFGHGGHIJKKJLCLLC |
---|---|
Closest metre | Iambic pentameter |
Characters | 1,125 |
Words | 208 |
Stanzas | 1 |
Stanza Lengths | 30 |
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"Sunset Wings" Poetry.com. STANDS4 LLC, 2024. Web. 28 Mar. 2024. <https://www.poetry.com/poem/7719/sunset-wings>.
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