The Lifting Of The Mist

All the long day the vapours played         At blindfold in the city streets,     Their elfin fingers caught and stayed         The sunbeams, as they wound their sheets     Into a filmy barricade         'Twixt earth and where the sunlight beats.     A vagrant band of mischiefs these,         With wings of grey and cobweb gown;     They live along the edge of seas,         And creeping out on foot of down,     They chase and frolic, frisk and tease         At blind-man's buff with all the town.     And when at eventide the sun         Breaks with a glory through their grey,     The vapour-fairies, one by one,     Outspread their wings and float away     In clouds of colouring, that run         Wine-like along the rim of day.     Athwart the beauty and the breast         Of purpling airs they twirl and twist,     Then float away to some far rest,         Leaving the skies all colour-kiss't -     A glorious and a golden West         That greets the Lifting of the Mist.