Poems (Sharpless)/Thoughts Suggested by a Picture of "Twilight"

by Frances M. Sharpless

THOUGHTS SUGGESTED BY A PICTURE OF "TWILIGHT"

So my soul in the twilight clearness sits,
 Conning its hidden treasures alone,
While a worldly memory strangely flits
 Between the earthly and th' unknown.
Alone, alone, in a world of mine own,
 Queen and sovereign supreme am I;
No other will doth my soul fulfil,
 Sitting there in the twilight silently.

Canst thou see, oh soul, in thy thoughtful glance,
 The true from the false in this life of thine?
Or dost sigh for the shadows that come and go,
 Weeping for things that can never be thine?
Is it love thou art leaning on, and truth,
 Art thou asking, or dreaming what thou shalt do?
Or, bewitched by the glamour of Fancy and Youth,
 Art thou blindly mingling the false and the true?

Oh dreaming soul, in the calm twilight,
 The shadows beguile thee more and more;
And Phantoms will gather with coming night,
 And bewilder with faces thou'st known before.
God's pity upon thee, thou pitiful soul,
 That loveth so fondly cold fancy's gleams!
For one of the saddest things on earth
 Is a human soul starved on empty dreams.