 | The silver bridge and other poems |  |
28
NIGHT AND MORNING.
I pause beside the darkening pane,
With homesick heart and weary hand,
To watch the fair day die again,
And evening with its shadowy train
Creep slow along the lonesome land.
With homesick heart and weary hand,
To watch the fair day die again,
And evening with its shadowy train
Creep slow along the lonesome land.
The west has lost its line of gold;
The clouds hang threatening, near and far,
Heavy and hopeless, fold on fold;
And night comes moaning, unconsoled
By glimmer of a single star.
The clouds hang threatening, near and far,
Heavy and hopeless, fold on fold;
And night comes moaning, unconsoled
By glimmer of a single star.
Ah, why does hope depart with light?
And why do griefs and fears alway,
And bitter thoughts of loss and blight,
Come crowding back again with night,
Like evil things which fear the day?
And why do griefs and fears alway,
And bitter thoughts of loss and blight,
Come crowding back again with night,
Like evil things which fear the day?
Yet none but feeble souls complain;
The world is only dark, not lost;
The day will shine on wave and plain,
The grass and flowers will spring again,
Despite the night, despite the frost.
The world is only dark, not lost;
The day will shine on wave and plain,
29
Despite the night, despite the frost.
And when the east, like some far shore
Of promise, broadens rosy-bright,
Visions of darkness vex no more,
For all their legions flee before
The level lances of the light.
Of promise, broadens rosy-bright,
Visions of darkness vex no more,
For all their legions flee before
The level lances of the light.
The grief that seemed too hard to bear,
The thought which stung to sharpest pain,
Fade in the rich and golden air;
The heart grows calm, the world grows fair,
And life is sweet and dear again.
The thought which stung to sharpest pain,
Fade in the rich and golden air;
The heart grows calm, the world grows fair,
And life is sweet and dear again.
| The silver bridge and other poems | |