Sunset at Ghadhira
(Malta GC)
The raging sun slips Westward, to the sea,
Trailing a dusky cloak of gathering night.
Brisk crickets cease their rasping rhapsody
As birds and insects, in the fading light,
Seek each their well-built nests.
And now the sun
Has dropped its molten orb beneath the wave,
Staining the Occident with its crimson
Blood; leaving the cool, mirror-moon to lave
In gentler shades the burning Earth.
The sea,
Erstwhile incarnadine, now turns to darker hue;
Guide-stars burst out in multiplicity;
The skies grow black, despite the pale moon’s bloom.
Not till tomorrow’s dawn, and its appointed hour,
Will rise the sun again in all its pomp and power.
