60 The Desolation Light I came down here one dusk and the beach was gone. The winter tides were easing it out to sea, Shelving it down and down, when suddenly A storm came through and scoured it to the stone — A jumble of stone; and the sky having done Its damage loosened up, pale vacancy Between a lot of ragged cloud debris Scattering fast, foam yellow and waves brown, The sea, too, loosened and sprawling, sunk so low That stubs of rock under for months now showed. Air darkened as if a curtain had been drawn, And shining as if for meditating on Was a tidepool that the gray light had filled To brimming where a simple stillness held. 117