I’m interested in what the word “screens” means to this poem; in modern usage, most people tend to say “screen” when referring to a digital device or the act of checking something over. However, after doing some sleuthing in the Oxford English Dictionary, I’ve found a few definitions that I think are relevant to sorting out the meaning of this word to the poem: “To shield or protect (someone or something) from danger, harm, hostility, etc.” and “To shelter or protect (someone or something) from wind, the sun, projectiles, etc., with a screen or other obstruction.” These definitions match up not only with the word “Sunset,” implying some kind of natural setting (which actually could be disputed, something I’ll look into later in this analysis), but also with the use of the words “menaces” and “Moats.” According to the OED, “menaces” almost definitely indicates a threat or danger (or at the very least irritation), so the use of the word screens in this context—when the Amethyst of the Sunset is menacing—implies that something about the Sunset is protecting the viewer from what they see. Further, the phrase “Moats of Mystery” carries with it the imagery of a protective moat around or containing mystery, which matches again with the use of language associated with shielding the viewer from something. In terms of figuring out what the viewer is being shielded from, exactly, we have to interrogate what is meant by “Sunset.” If it’s a literal sunset, then it’s possible that the viewer is being “screened” from the sun by the face that it’s setting; but I don’t know if this fully explains the “reveals” piece, much less the last two lines. If “Sunset” is instead a metaphor for the end of something—a usage also confirmed by the OED—then this poem becomes a bit more interesting. In that case, the references to “Amethyst” and “Mystery” become more grounded in purely figurative language than anything else; if we’re not talking about an actual sunset, the invocation of purple takes on symbolism that links it to literal sunsets while the poem is still talking about metaphorical sunsets. The “menaces of Amethyst,” then, could reference the colors seen far away in a sunset, a sort of reference to the future or some distant happening, separated from the reader by “Moats of Mystery,” perhaps an allusion to a horizon, especially one over water. Then, this “Sunset” might be protecting you by enhancing your ability to see what’s ahead but keeping you at a distance, separating you from what you see with mysteries you can’t solve yet. The word “reveals” in the first line becomes even more interesting in this reading. Since “screen” can mean “protect via obstruction,” perhaps that connects to the “Moats of Mystery” with it acting both as a protection from the future [“the menaces of Amethyst”] while simultaneously being a force obfuscating it. However, some things are still revealed if you can see this menacing “Amethyst” at all; which begs the question, if things are being both revealed and obscured, what does that mean for the viewer in terms of getting a full picture? What does that mean for the sunset itself? Is it really a sunset, or is it instead a beginning obscured as an end?