Henry Wadsworth Longfellow, ed. Poems of Places: An Anthology in 31 Volumes.
America: Vols. XXV–XXIX. 1876–79.
A Picture
By William Osborn Stoddard (18351925)S
The purple light glows on the river’s breast,
Far in the east the dull clouds watch and frown,
Jealous of all the glory in the west;
To watch their shadows lengthen down the tide;
And, far above us, slowly floating o’er,
The weary birds on homeward pinions glide.
Tired with the week’s long labor, heavily lies;
Longer and longer still the shadows creep,
And evening mists from out the distance rise.
As if in faith that, when the morning came,
The sun would once more light his golden gate
With all the glory of his entering flame.