More Gurgles

The last light fades and drifts across the land,

The low, long land, the land of towers and spires,

That wanders lonely lest the lurid lyres

Press thy pale petals with a passionate hand—

Enchanted essences and pagan pyres—

Oh, dream that sleeps and sleep that knows no dreaming!

So wert thou wrought in fragrant fadeless fires.

So wert thou wrapt in garments goldly gleaming

And dying knew not what should end this seeming.

The ghosts of evenings haunt these afternoons.

The mid-day twilight shifts with my desire.

Nor yet before my eyes do they conspire

There to distil the fragrance of the moons

That burn and are consumed with splendid fire,

And hurl them to abide in their abode

Where young Fitjazzer tuned his youthful lyre

And sang to Princeton his melodious ode

Which, what it means, there’s no one never knowed.