The sunset kindles pyres across the bay; the mellow evening nestles coolly down, and lights bloom softly as the island town awakens from the drowsy heat of day. Young street-girls, fragrant garlands in their hair, pass, two and two, or wait to give their lips to woman-hungry lads from foreign ships; guitars sound gently on the evening air. On the stone benches in the seaward park, beachcombers meet and gossip and complain: here are the careless young, the old and vain who chase lost youth beneath the scented dark -- and haunted-eyed and stricken ones who go for healing, secretly, to Mama Po. | Discover our Poem Explanations and Poet Analyses!Other Poems of Interest...THE BLACK RIDERS: 38 by STEPHEN CRANE IN THE HOLY NATIVITY [OF OUR LORD GOD]; AS SUNG BY SHEPHERDS by RICHARD CRASHAW ITALY AND THE WORLD by ELIZABETH BARRETT BROWNING DE CUNJAH MAN by JAMES EDWIN CAMPBELL |