Edmund Clarence Stedman, ed. (1833–1908). An American Anthology, 1787–1900. 1900.

By Richard WatsonGilder

909 Evening in Tyringham Valley

WHAT domes and pinnacles of mist and fire

Are builded in yon spacious realms of light

All silently, as did the walls aspire

Templing the ark of God by day and night!

Noiseless and swift, from darkening ridge to ridge,

Through purple air that deepens down the day,

Over the valley springs a shadowy bridge.

The evening star’s keen, solitary ray

Makes more intense the silence, and the glad,

Unmelancholy, restful, twilight gloom—

So full of tenderness, that even the sad

Remembrances that haunt the soul take bloom

Like that on yonder mountain.

Now the bars

Of sunset all burn black; the day doth fail,

And the skies whiten with the eternal stars.

Oh, let thy spirit stay with me, sweet vale!