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

By Paul HamiltonHayne

530 Between the Sunken Sun and the New Moon

BETWEEN the sunken sun and the new moon,

I stood in fields through which a rivulet ran

With scarce perceptible motion, not a span

Of its smooth surface trembling to the tune

Of sunset breezes: “O delicious boon,”

I cried, “of quiet! wise is Nature’s plan,

Who, in her realm, as in the soul of man,

Alternates storm with calm, and the loud noon

With dewy evening’s soft and sacred lull:

Happy the heart that keeps its twilight hour,

And, in the depths of heavenly peace reclined,

Loves to commune with thoughts of tender power;

Thoughts that ascend, like angels beautiful,

A shining Jacob’s ladder of the mind.”