Aspects of the Pines

TALL, sombre, grim, against the morning sky
They rise, scarce touched by melancholy airs
That thrill the fadeless foliage dreamfully,
As if from realms of mystical despairs.

Tall, sombre, grim, they stand with dusky gleams
Trembling to gold within the woodland’s core,
Beneath the gracious noontide’s tranquil beams :
But the weird winds of morning sigh no more.

A stillness strange, divine, ineffable
Broods round and o’er them in the wind’s surcease,
While on each tinted copse and shimmering dell
Rests the mute rapture of deep-hearted peace.

Last, sunset comes ; the solemn joy and might
Borne from the west, when cloudless day declines ;
Low, flute-like breezes sweep the waves of light,
And lifting dark-green tresses of the pines,

Till every lock is luminous, gently float,
Fraught with hale odors up the heavens afar,
To faint where Twilight on her virginal throat
Wears for a gem the tremulous vesper star.