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| ACROSS the prairie, toward the west, | |
| We rode at day’s declining: | |
| What radiant pictures we beheld, | |
| In heavenly ether shining! | |
| |
| How blends the purple, rosy light, | 5 |
| And melts into the golden, | |
| Across the azure, crimson bars, | |
| Like some escutcheon olden. | |
| |
| The prairie seems a grassy lake | |
| Where countless islets cluster; | 10 |
| Green sumac clumps, that wear not yet | |
| The autumn’s scarlet lustre. * * * * * | |
| The varied tints of budding leaves, | |
| The long, cool shadows lying | |
| Across the grass, weird shapes of clouds | 15 |
| Before the breezes flying; | |
| |
| The plaintive call of whippoorwill, | |
| The mourning dove’s complaining, | |
| The doleful tale the katydid | |
| Repeats, no answer gaining; | 20 |
| |
| Each sight, each sound our souls possess | |
| With sense of summer’s being; | |
| And Nature wears her choicest dress | |
| For those with eyes for seeing! | |
| |
| The splendor fades, the amber pales | 25 |
| To neutral tint uncertain, | |
| And swiftly, fold on fold, descends | |
| The evening’s sombre curtain. | |
| |
| But still our good steeds gallop on | |
| O’er phloxes and verbenas; | 30 |
| The quiet holds us like a charm, | |
| No word is said between us. | |
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| Sweet stars above, sweet flowers beneath, | |
| Shine in the twilight faintly, | |
| While rising in the dusky east | 35 |
| The moon glows white and saintly. | |
| |
| We turn our horses’ heads for home, | |
| Beneath the wind’s cool kisses: | |
| Will life or earth e’er yield again | |
| A joy as pure as this is? * * * * * | 40 |
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