| Augustin S. Macdonald, comp. A Collection of Verse by California Poets. 1914. | | | | Retrospection | | By James Rawlins |
| | From the hilltops at sunset, Golden Gate.
DEEP in the pitying bosom of the sea, | |
| Ebbs fast the glory of a dying day. | |
| And on the giant battlements | |
| That guard these glowing portals of the night, | |
| Another niche appears, full chiseled, deep. | 5 |
| How many fateful names enregistered | |
| In burning letters on that scroll of Time. | |
| |
| But what of it—What matters that | |
| The chastened page be rudely blotted out | |
| By hands that ever faltered as they wrote; | 10 |
| That ere the cruel ink was scarcely dry, | |
| Hot tears erased the shameful entry? | |
| |
| Nay the thing has passed | |
| And deep within the glowing embers lies | |
| The substance—and the form | 15 |
| Ethereal shapes assume that seem, withal, | |
| On golden pinions to have taken flight | |
| And vanished with the spirits of the night. | | | | |
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