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Beyond the Hills of Dream

Chapter 14: Glory of the Dying Day
By Wilfred Campbell
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Poetry

About This Book

A sequence of lyrical poems moves between meditations on nature and elegy, intimate love lyrics, classical and historical sketches, and reflections on public life. Seasonal and landscape imagery—shorelines, woods, hills, and morning light—frames explorations of loss, memory, longing, and the consolations of fancy; several elegies mourn vanished friends or past ages while narrative pieces recall antiquity and voyages. The voice shifts from private yearning and pastoral observation to occasional public-address poems that honor places and figures, blending mythic allusion with local scenery and contemplative religious tones. The collection combines late‑Victorian musicality with restrained moral and reflective temper.

Glory of the Dying Day

O glory of the dying day
 That into darkness fades away!
 O violet splendor melting down
 By river bend o’er tower and town!
 O glory of the dying day
 That into darkness fades away!
O splendor of the gates of night!
 O majesty of dying light
 That all a molten glory glows,
 Till purple-crimson fades to rose
 And dying, melting, outward goes
 In ashes on the even’s rim,
 When all the world grows faint and dim!
O silvern sound of far-off bells
 Ringing, ringing miles away
 Over river, fields, and fells,
 Round the crimson and the gray;
 Pealing softly evening out
 As the dewy dusk comes down,
 And the great night folds about
 River, woodlands, hills, and town!
O glory of the fading hills!
 Splendor of the river’s breast!
 O silence that the whole world fills!
 Sanctity of peaceful rest!
 Alien from the care of day,
 Now a petalled star peeps in:
 Now night’s choruses begin,
 Musical and far away.
O glory of the dying day,
 When my life’s evening fades away,
 May it in splendid peace go down
 Like yours o’er river-bend and town—
 Not into silence blind and stark,
 Not into wintry muffled dark—
 But, heralded by stars divine,
 May my life’s latest evening ray
 Melt into such a night as thine.