The Changing Light by L. Ferlinghetti

The poetic description of the changing light of San Francisco is soft, mellow, airy. One of the poet's late works, it evokes the calm after the storm. Vernacular ("...is none of..") and yet precise ("scrim"), the poem eventually settles on Greece--the cradle of modern western civilization--as having light which is similar to San Francisco's: an island light that creates sharp dark shadows. The poet's gaze cast eastward, he overlooks the east coast of the US and Paris, France to settle on Greece. Oh, the soup we could make with those allusions! But instead, let's consider the gentle motion of the fog, like clockwork, rolling in at night and burned off by late morning. By mid-afternoon, the wind picks up; then, it is soon evening, and the "city lights" begin to twinkle. And the poet is aware of having made history, yet the whole city drifts, as in a dream, "anchorless over the ocean," in search of direction.