"The Summons"

The Summons

Last night, while sunset burned across the land

            And lit with glowing mystery the sea,

            I slept; and in my dreams I saw her stand

At heaven’s western archway, wistfully.

She pushed the crimson cloud-portières aside

            With a still movement of her slender arm,

            Sickling one hand above her dear eyes, wide

With that deep sweetness wherein lay her charm

Of old, and sent a long look thro’ the maze

            Of blending rose and violet and gold,

            While close about her pink cloud-draperies rolled.

Looked, leaned and beckoned. Then―a blur of haze!

            The clouds burned down to ashes gray and sere,

            And waking―lo! I heard Death’s breathing near.

"The Summons" as it appears in Ella Higginson's When the Birds Go North Again (1898).