“Oh what is the light that shines so red
’Tis long since the sun set;”
Quoth the youngest to the eldest maid:
“’Twas dim but now, and yet
The light is great.”

Quoth the other: “’Tis our sight is dazed
That we see flame i’ the air.”
But the Queen held her brows and gazed,
And said, “It is the glare
Of torches there.”

—Dante Gabriel Rossetti, from The Staff and Scrip, 1851-52.