A Sunset Fantasy

Spellbound by a sweet fantasy     At evenglow I stand     Beside an opaline strange sea     That rings a sunset land.     The rich lights fade out one by one,     And, like a peony     Drowning in wine, the crimson sun     Sinks down in that strange sea.     His wake across the ocean-floor     In a long glory lies,     Like a gold wave-way to the shore     Of some sea paradise.     My dream flies after him, and I     Am in another land;     The sun sets in another sky,     And we sit hand in hand.     Gray eyes look into mine; such eyes     I think the angels are,     Soft as the soft light in the skies     When shines the morning star,     And tremulous as morn, when thin     Gold lights begin to glow,     Revealing the bright soul within     As dawn the sun below.     So, hand in hand, we watch the sun     Burn down the Western deeps,     Dreaming a charmed dream, as one     Who in enchantment sleeps;     A dream of how we twain some day,     Careless of map or chart,     Will both take ship and sail away     Into the sunsets heart.     Our ship shall be of sandal built,     Like ships in old-world tales,     Carven with cunning art, and gilt,     And winged with scented sails     Of silver silk, whereon the red     Great gladioli burn,     A rainbow-flag at her masthead,     A rose-flag at her stern;     And, perching on the point above     Wherefrom the pennon blows,     The figure of a flying dove,     And in her beak a rose.     And from the fading land the breeze     Shall bring us, blowing low,     Old odours and old memories,     And airs of long ago.     A melody that has no words     Of mortal speech a part,     Yet touching all the deepest chords     That tremble in the heart:     A scented song blown oversea,     As though from bowers of bloom     A wind-harp in a lilac-tree     Breathed music and perfume.     And we, no more with longings pale,     Will smile to hear it blow;     I in the shadow of the sail,     You in the sunset-glow.     For, with the fading land, our fond     Old fears shall all fade out,     Paled by the light from shores beyond     The dread of Death or Doubt.     And from a gloomy cloud above     When Death his shadow flings,     The Spirit of Immortal Love     Will shield us with his wings.     He is the lord of dreams divine,     And lures us with his smiles     Along the splendour opaline     Unto the Blessed Isles.