DAWN opes her pensive eyes, In the yet starry skies, A roseate blush upon her cheek and brows. Her purple mantle still Lies on the sky-kissed hill, And a blue, solemn shade thereon it throws. The earth lies hushed and calm. No chant of praise, no psalm Riseth to greet the rose-crowned queen of day. Each blade of grass, each leaf, Stands out in sharp relief, Against the rayless blue and silver gray. All nature seems to wait For some new deed of Fate; The silence is a sacred, reverent prayer, -- When hark! from some sweet throat One thrilling, quivering note Fills with its tremulous music all the air. Then from the dewy grass A tiny form doth pass, A little soul all music and all wings. All nature's voice is heard, Embodied in this bird, That darteth up and, rising, ever sings. It mounteth still and sings: What soul yearns not for wings, To follow after, burst its prison bars, And learn the secret there, In those clear realms of air, The secret of the rainbow and the stars; To rush as swift as light, Within those regions bright Of throbbing, scintillant, intensest blue; The air all breathless cleave, And far below to leave Regrets and tears, the raindrop and the dew. Ah! caged 'mongst meaner things, The soul can use no wings, And beats against the bars it cannot pass; But it might humbly turn, Essaying first to learn The secret of the flowers and the grass. | Discover our Poem Explanations and Poet Analyses!Other Poems of Interest...LORD ULLIN'S DAUGHTER by THOMAS CAMPBELL THE OLD BRIDGE AT FLORENCE; SONNET by HENRY WADSWORTH LONGFELLOW SONG OF THE SILENT LAND by JOHANN GAUDENZ VON SALIS-SEEWIS ADONAIS; AN ELEGY ON THE DEATH OF JOHN KEATS by PERCY BYSSHE SHELLEY ROOTS AND LEAVES THEMSELVES ALONE by WALT WHITMAN WESTWARD BOUND by BETSY H. ASHMORE |