Page:A Wine of Wizardry and Other Poems (1909).djvu/19

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A WINE OF WIZARDRY

"When mountains were stained as with wine
By the dawning of Time, and as wine
Were the seas. Ambrose Bierce.

Without, the battlements of sunset shine,
'Mid domes the sea-winds rear and overwhelm.
Into a crystal cup the dusky wine
I pour, and, musing at so rich a shrine,
I watch the star that haunts its ruddy gloom.
Now Fancy, empress of a purpled realm,
Awakes with brow caressed by poppy-bloom,
And wings in sudden dalliance her flight
To strands where opals of the shattered light
Gleam in the wind-strewn foam, and maidens flee

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