At the End of an Era

I SAW a sunset in a golden sky
With clouds like flaming roses, and the West
With such serenity was all at rest
It was as though the sun had said good-bye
Not to a day, but to the history
Of some old people. Every gleaming crest
Of clouds in an unwonted glory dressed
Seemed waving to a world about to die.
Did such a glory for the mammoth glow
When overtaken by triumphant man?
Or for the dinosaur before his foe
Destroyed him? And was all that golden span
Of heaven, lit with roses, made to deck
Man and the world that we have power to wreck?