 | Vigil and vision |  |
9
TWO DAYBREAKS.
1. WINTER.
THE white light wakened me at morning-grayAnd to the window in the dawn I went.
The dying night with the snow's sacrament
New houseled was and stark the white world lay
Under the grimness of the growing day,
Its wan face lifting to the firmament,
That, with its endless, ashen-coloured tent,
From pole to pole space vaulted, aye to aye.
Corpse of cold Nature, who might ever deem
That thou again from Winter's deathly dream
Shouldst wake, to wanton in the sunlight sweet
And see the lark wing skyward through the cloud,
Shouldst scent the roses in the Summer-heat
And hear the thrush among the leafage loud?
2. SPRING.
THE opal flush of dawn is in the sky;Already in the limes I hear begun
The chirp of birds, awaking one by one;
And yonder in the East the lark mounts high,
Shrill-singing, looking, longing to espy
The rosy-footed heralds that fore-run
The crimson standards of the coming sun:
Gone is the night, the golden day draws nigh.
Ah Spring, what winter shall fordo thy sweet?
How, in the sorry season of the snows,
Shall we forget thy silver-sandalled feet,
That walked with us in April's primrose-way?
How but remember that we smelt the rose
And carolled in the cowslip-meads of May?
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