The Evening Star [poem by Agnes Neale]

[Editor: This poem by Agnes Neale was published in Shadows and Sunbeams (1890).]

The Evening Star.

Far away beyond the sunset,
Where the shadows come and go,
There a silver star of promise
In the western sky hung low.

Tremulous and soft its splendor,
Melting in the liquid blue,
Like a dewdrop on a rose-leaf
When the sun shines redly through.

All around the glory faded,
As the setting sun went down;
Over all the hills and valleys
Fell the shadows still and brown.

But around that star of promise
Linger’d still a rosy flush,
As the early mists of morning
At the sun’s warm kisses blush.

Then the rosy flush all faded,
Calm and cold the heavens grew;
Still the silver star of promise
Trembled in the distant blue.

Other lights came out and sparkled,
But to me none were as fair
As that star that in the sunset
Trembled in the evening air —

Star of hope and star of promise,
Like a glittering point of light,
Ever shining clearer, brighter,
As the evening sinks in night.

So, there is no night all darkness,
So, there is no life all gloom;
So, along the roughest pathway
Love’s bright flower will one day bloom.

So, some star is ever shining
Till night’s sable flag is furled,
Till the white wings of the morning
Brood above the sleeping world.

Source:
Agnes Neale, Shadows and Sunbeams, Adelaide: Burden & Bonython, 1890, pages 48-49

Editor’s notes:
sable = a colour that is black, dark, or gloomy (“sables” was an archaic term for garments worn for mourning; “sable” in heraldry refers to black); arising from the colour of dark sable fur, as taken from a sable (a furry mammal, Martes zibellina, which is primarily found in Russia and northern East Asia, and noted for its fur which has traditionally been used for clothing)