Classic and Contemporary Poetry
AS THE DAY BREAKS, by ERNEST MCGAFFEY First Line: I pray you, what's asleep? Last Line: The night is gone. | ||||||||
I PRAY you, what's asleep? The lily-pads, and riffles, and the reeds; No longer inward do the waters creep, No longer outwardly their force recedes, And widowed Night, in blackness wide and deep, Resumes her weeds. I pray you, what's awake? A host of stars, the long, long milky way That stretches out, a glistening silver flake, All glorious beneath the moon's cold ray, And myriad reflections on the lake Where star-gleams lay. I pray you, what's astir? Why, naught but rustling leaves, dry, sere, and brown: The East's broad gates are yet a dusky blur, And star-gems twinkle in fair Luna's crown, And minor chords of wailing winds that were Die slowly down. I pray you, what's o'clock? Nay! who shall answer that but gray-stoled dawn? See, how from out the shadows looms yon rock, Like some great figure on a canvas drawn; And heard you not the crowing of the cock? The night is gone. | Discover our Poem Explanations and Poet Analyses!Other Poems of Interest...A CALIFORNIA IDYL by ERNEST MCGAFFEY LITTLE BIG HORN by ERNEST MCGAFFEY HIS LADY'S HAND by THOMAS WYATT THE CENSUS-TAKER by ROBERT FROST THE STATUE AND THE BUST by ROBERT BROWNING THE WITCH by MARY ELIZABETH COLERIDGE |
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