Day is dying! Float, O song,
Down the westward river,
Requiem chanting to the Day--
Day, the mighty Giver.
Pierced by shafts of Time he bleeds,
Melted rubies sending
Through the river and the sky,
Earth and heaven blending;
All the long-drawn earthly banks
Up to cloud-land lifting:
Slow between them drifts the swan,
'Twixt two heavens drifting.
Wings half open, like a flow'r,
Inly deeper flushing,
Neck and breast as Virgin's pure--
Virgin proudly blushing.
Day is dying! Float, O swan,
Down the ruby river;
Follow, song, in requiem
To the mighty Giver.
--George Eliot, in the Spanish Gypsy.