Digitized by the Internet Archive 
 in 2014 
 
 https://archive.org/details/evanescentcitybyOOster 
 
THE 
 
 E V A N E S G E N T 
 I CITY 
 
 GEORCF ^TFRT INC 
 With 'Hxnc Illustrations after Photographs 
 
 FRANCIS BRUGUIERE 
 
 And 
 
 3 AN 
 
altar: palace of fine arts 
 
THE 
 EVANESCENT 
 CITY 
 
 by 
 
 GEORGE STERLING 
 
 With 7s[ine Illustrations after Photographs 
 
 by 
 
 FRANCIS BRUGUIERE 
 
 And 
 
 A Cover in Color after the Painting by 
 Will Sparks 
 
 SAN FRANCISCO 
 A. M. ROBERTSON 
 1915 
 
Copyright, 1915, by 
 A. M. Robertson 
 
 Printed by Taylor 6? Taylor, San Francisco 
 
Kiote: 
 
 This poem, commemorative of the Panama' 
 Pacific International Exposition, with its accom' 
 panying illustrations after photographs by Francis 
 Bruguiere, first appeared in Sunset Magazine, to 
 whose Editors the Publisher is indebted for per' 
 mission to reprint it in the present form. The 
 illustration on the cover, after the painting by 
 Will Sparks, has not been published heretofore. 
 
THE EVATiESCEJiT CITY 
 
THE EVANESCENT CITY 
 
 <5 
 
 REAT on the west, ere darkness crush her domes, 
 
 Wincred the city of the sunset lies. 
 Below her courts the mournful ocean foams; 
 Above, no foam of cloud is in the skies. 
 
 ARCH OF 
 THE EAST 
 
 [ 3 1 
 
THE EVANESCENT CITY 
 
 Awhile I stand, a dreamer by the deep, 
 
 And watch the winds of evening sap her walls, 
 
 Till ashen armies to the ramparts sweep 
 
 And seas of shadow storm the gleaming halls. 
 
 [ 4 ] 
 
 PALACE OF 
 HORTICULTURE 
 
THE EVANESCENT CITY 
 
 So dies that far magnificence of light, 
 
 A conquered splendor on a crumbling pyre, 
 
 'Mid fall of crimson temples from their height 
 And ruined altars yielding up their fire. 
 
 [ 6 ] 
 
 WATER SPIRIT 
 BY 
 
 LEO LENTELLI 
 
THE EVANESCENT CITY 
 
 So fades that city, one with all that finds 
 
 The nameless road that Beauty takes at last- 
 One with her dust upon the twilight winds 
 And all her music mingling with the Past. 
 
 [ 8 ] 
 
 COLONNADE : 
 COURT OF THE UNIVERSE 
 
THE EVANESCENT CITY 
 
 "Farewell!" I whisper low — then thrill to see, 
 Unseen till now, eternal and afar, 
 
 Soul of dead day and pledge of peace to be, 
 The tranquil silver of the evening star. . . . 
 
 [ 10 ] 
 
 doorway: 
 palace of machinery 
 
THE EVANESCENT CITY 
 
 And even thus our city of a year 
 
 Must pass lil^e those the shafted sunsets build, 
 Fleeting as all fair things and, fleeting, dear— 
 
 A rainbow fallen and an anthem stilled. 
 
 [ 12 ] 
 
 doorway: 
 palace of varied industries 
 
THE EVANESCENT CITY 
 
 A rainbow fallen— but within the soul 
 
 Its deep indubitable iris burns; 
 An anthem stilled — yet for its ghostly goal 
 The incommunicable music yearns. 
 
 [ 14 ] 
 
 COLUMNS AND LAGOON: 
 PALACE OF FINE ARTS 
 
THE EVANESCENT CITY 
 
 Only for Beauty s passing shall we trace 
 
 The heavenly pathway that her feet have trod; 
 
 Only at her departure see\ her face — 
 
 We that shall find it not this side of God. 
 
 [ 16 ] 
 
 COLUMNS AND ROTUNDA: 
 PALACE OF FINE ARTS 
 
THE END