Poetry Explorer- Classic Contemporary Poetry, DAWN, by AMELIA JOSEPHINE BURR


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Classic and Contemporary Poetry

DAWN, by                    
First Line: Green bud of dawn
Last Line: The seal of paradise.
Subject(s): Dawn; Sunrise


GREEN bud of dawn
That shyly in the east now dost unfold
The glowing garments of thy heart of gold,
I look to thee across the shadowy lawn
Hoary with dew.
Purged by clean slumber as a soul by death
I lift my brow to meet thy blessed breath.
All hail, thou messenger of Him who saith,
"Lo, I make all things new."

THE early breeze
Quickens to sudden whispering all the trees;
The orchard yeomen in their sturdy ranks,
The slender cedars halted on the flanks
Of every hill, the copse's quivering green --
Even the height serene
Of the old hemlocks is a moment stirred
As if among their aged boughs they heard
The magic murmur of that master-word
Thou daily speakst man's weariness to cheer,
O Dawn -- would man but hear.

A SIGN from Heaven long ago men sought,
And he to whom their questionings were brought
Marvelled in sadness; how should even he
Give signs to them who had no eyes to see?
Dear God, how blindly do thy children trace
This marvellous earth-manuscript of thine!
Weary of study, we are baffled yet
By the great lessons for our learning set,
And clamour eagerly with lifted face
To Heaven for a sign.

THERE shall no sign be given,
For we are hedged with portents undivined.
God waits until the fetters of the mind
At last be riven.
And as we grope
Amid the growing glory, we behold
The Dawn's recurrent miracle unfold
The heavenly word for hope.
The clouds of yesterday,
Although they smother all the blue, avail
No whit the mounting of the sun to stay,
Who like a strong young king in golden mail
Leaps up behind the gray.
Earth, air, and sea may rage in mortal strife
But calmly certain, over death and life
Rises the still, unconquerable Day.
And so shall Man arise
From sullen-clotted clouds of past mistake,
Sorrow and disappointment, and awake
With some indomitable dawn, to break
The seal of Paradise.





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