Poetry Explorer- Classic Contemporary Poetry, NIGHT-BORN, by MARY LANIER MAGRUDER


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Classic and Contemporary Poetry

NIGHT-BORN, by                    
First Line: You loved the wind at twilight, and the snow
Last Line: Beyond the door to which we have no key.
Subject(s): Shadows


You loved the wind at twilight, and the snow
Clouding the uplands with its whirling white;
And you loved shadows in the east that go
To mystery in the new moon's waning light;
Tide ebbing from a rocky headland; still
Deep water flowing to a long lagoon;
Echoes at midnight from some distant hill;
Showers at dusk or rainy nights in June.

What matter day's clear flashing wings, or sun
Upon a hundred hills? The ecstasies
Of bird-notes ere the morning had begun,
Spilling their careless silver sequences?
The bright, insistent brilliance of the day
Too white and hard against your eyelids burned;
Wearied of light and sound you slipped away,
Night-born, your spirit to the night returned.

And now no sudden gust may bring the fleet
Wild rain at midnight but the echoes wake,
And bring a prescience of your passing feet
In ways remembered for the old years' sake.
And never April starlight but has shaped
Some memory of your smile that used to be
Before your spirit to the night escaped
Beyond the door to which we have no key.





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