Poetry Explorer- Classic Contemporary Poetry, A SONG OF DAWN AT DUSK, by WILLIAM ROSE BENET


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Classic and Contemporary Poetry

A SONG OF DAWN AT DUSK, by                 Poet Analysis     Poet's Biography
First Line: Not of sadness, now 'tis dusk
Last Line: In the joy above all speaking!
Subject(s): Dusk


Not of sadness, now 'tis dusk
(All too often sung in sorrow)
And all certain outlines falter
From our world, a mist-wreathed altar, --
Not of sadness are my dreams
But of sunrise and tomorrow.
Death? I dream the death of sorrow.

As of old our life unfolds
Like a pageant never-ended
With new sunlit, moonlit hours,
Pristine dew and virgin flowers,
Fresher hues and fairer hopes
In a sunrise still more splendid
Till the earth and stars be ended.

Slowly, slowly, yet as sure
As the colors come in heaven, --
Come with morning, purer, rarer,
Wane with evening, richer, fairer, --
Dreams that high eternal mind
Through whose joy green earth was given
Unto Man, and thought of Heaven.

Safely, Love, I hold your hand
And your eyes wake mine to wonder
On the transience of all sorrow
And the surety of to-morrow,
Each tomorrow lifting sunward
From a night so soon swept under
As our world rolls on in wonder.

As of old the seasons wheel,
But if faith be vernal ever
Of new hopes and realizations
And new sunrise on the nations
Can we doubt the coast we lift
When life's mists and clouds dissever
In the last dawn come forever?

Not while heart now answers heart
With the words beyond all speaking,
Now that all familiar being
Grows so sacred to foreseeing,
Not while love is ours as now,
Not while soul toward soul is seeking
In the joy above all speaking!





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