Lost Time

But o’er the twilight groves, dusky coral caves
The serrated edges of the mainland isles
Black melancholy sits, and round her throws
A death like silence and dead repose
Her gloomy presence sadness all the scene
Shades every flower and darkness every green
Deepens the murmur of the falling tide
And breathes a darker horror to the night
The stale air suffocating a sepulchre
The moon’s charm dissolving apace
It hangs impotent, frigid
As seen through the turbid fluctuating air
Wearing a wan circle round her blunted horns
The stars emit a shivering ray
Or frequently seem to athwart the gloom
And long behind them trail the whitening blaze
Snatched in short eddies, plays the withered leaf
On the rocky beach lies a broken hourglass