Poetry Explorer- Classic Contemporary Poetry, VISIONS OF LIGHT, by ALICE CARY


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Classic and Contemporary Poetry

VISIONS OF LIGHT, by                 Poet Analysis     Poet's Biography
First Line: The moon is rising in beauty
Last Line: In their twilight cells of books!
Subject(s): Light


THE moon is rising in beauty,
The sky is solemn and bright,
And the waters are singing like lovers
That walk in the valleys at night.

Like the towers of an ancient city,
That darken against the sky,
Seems the blue mist of the river
O'er the hill-tops far and high.

I see through the gathering darkness
The spire of the village church,
And the pale white tombs, half hidden
By the tasselled willow and birch.

Vain is the golden drifting
Of morning light on the hill;
No white hand opens the windows
Of those chambers low and still.

But their dwellers were all my kindred
Whatever their lives might be,
And their sufferings and achievements
Have recorded lessons for me.

Not one of the countless voyagers
Of life's mysterious main,
Has laid down his burden of sorrows,
Who hath lived and loved in vain.

From the bards of the elder ages
Fragments of song float by,
Like flowers in the streams of summer
Or stars in the midnight sky.

Some plumes in the dust are scatter'd,
Where the eagles of Persia flew;
And wisdom is reap'd from the furrows
The plough of the Roman drew.

From the white tents of the crusaders
The phantoms of glory are gone,
But the zeal of the barefooted hermit
In humanity's heart lives on.

Oh, sweet as the bell of the sabbath,
In the tower of the village church,
Or the fall of the yellow moonbeams
In the tasselled willow and birch --

Comes the thought of the blessed issues
That shall follow our social strife,
When the spirit of love maketh perfect
The beautiful mission of life:

For visions of light are gather'd
In the sunshine of flowery nooks,
Like the shades of the ghostly Fathers
In their twilight cells of books!





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