Jessica Nelson North. To the Man Who Loves Twilight. Harriet Monroe, ed. Poetry: A Magazine of Verse. 1912-22

Harriet Monroe, ed. (1860–1936). Poetry: A Magazine of Verse. 1912–22.

To the Man Who Loves Twilight

By Jessica Nelson North


From “At Night” WHY do you go along the street caressing with quiet eyes
Gray walls, bleak houses, and the dull wet skies?
Have all things gray your blessing?

We do not love your twilight, God and I.
He pelts the rainy heaven	5
With gorgeous autumn,—hangs the dripping trees
With yellow apples of Hesperides
In lines
Sweetly uneven.
Loops every sodden fence with scarlet vines….	10

And where you sit
Sufficient to yourself, hugging the gloom,
I prance with rustling silk and candles lit
To make an orgy in our quiet room.