Smoke Rose Gold
THE DOME of the capitol looks to the Potomac river. Out of haze over the sunset, Out of a smoke rose gold: One star shines over the sunset. Night takes the dome and the river, the sun and the smoke rose gold, The haze changes from sunset to star. The pour of a thin silver struggles against the dark. A star might call: It's a long way across.
Smoke Rose Gold - form Summary
Free Verse Visual Turn
The poem uses open, unmetered lines to compress a twilight scene into a brief visual and temporal shift. Sandburg moves swiftly from capitol dome and Potomac through sunset haze to a single star, layering color and motion without formal constraint. The free-verse field lets images and short clauses accumulate and then yield to a quiet ending, where the star’s distant call gestures beyond the immediate urban landscape.
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