Amy Lowell - Solitaire

Amy Lowell was an Imagist poet of the late 19th century, and the early 1900s. A socialite who was not permitted to attend college, she read, wrote, and collected books to make up for her lack of formal education.

Solitaire

WHEN night drifts along the streets of the city,
And sifts down between the uneven roofs,
My mind begins to peek and peer.
It plays at ball in old, blue Chinese gardens,
And shakes wrought dice-cups in Pagan temples,
Amid the broken flutings of white pillars.
It dances with purple and yellow crocuses in its hair,
And its feet shine as they flutter over drenched grasses.
How light and laughing my mind is,
When all the good folk have put out their bed-room candles,
And the city is still!