| Arthur Quiller-Couch, comp. The Oxford Book of Victorian Verse. 1922. | | | | Margaritae Sorori | | By William Ernest Henley (1849–1903) |
| | | A LATE lark twitters from the quiet skies | |
| And from the west, | |
| Where the sun, his day’s work ended, | |
| Lingers as in content, | |
| There falls on the old, gray city | 5 |
| An influence luminous and serene, | |
| A shining peace. | |
| |
| The smoke ascends | |
| In a rosy-and-golden haze. The spires | |
| Shine and are changed. In the valley | 10 |
| Shadows rise. The lark sings on. The sun, | |
| Closing his benediction, | |
| Sinks, and the darkening air | |
| Thrills with a sense of the triumphing night— | |
| Night with her train of stars | 15 |
| And her great gift of sleep. | |
| |
| So be my passing! | |
| My task accomplish’d and the long day done, | |
| My wages taken, and in my heart | |
| Some late lark singing, | 20 |
| Let me be gather’d to the quiet west, | |
| The sundown splendid and serene, | |
| Death. | | | | |
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