Poetry Explorer- Classic Contemporary Poetry, UNTIL THE DAY BREAK, by CHRISTINA GEORGINA ROSSETTI


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Classic and Contemporary Poetry

UNTIL THE DAY BREAK, by                 Poet Analysis     Poet's Biography
First Line: When will the day bring its pleasure
Last Line: Hide in my heart till the vengeance be past.'
Alternate Author Name(s): Alleyne, Ellen; Rossetti, Christina
Subject(s): Jesus Christ


WHEN will the day bring its pleasure?
When will the night bring its rest?
Reaper and gleaner and thresher
Peer toward the east and the west: --
The Sower He knoweth, and He knoweth best.

Meteors flash forth and expire,
Northern lights kindle and pale;
These are the days of desire,
Of eyes looking upward that fail;
Vanishing days as a finishing tale.

Bows down the crop in its glory,
Tenfold, fiftyfold, hundredfold;
The millet is ripened and hoary,
The wheat ears are ripened to gold: --
Why keep us waiting in dimness and cold?

The Lord of the harvest, He knoweth
Who knoweth the first and the last:
The Sower Who patiently soweth,
He scanneth the present and past:
He saith, 'What thou hast, what remaineth, hold fast.'

Yet, Lord, o'er Thy toil-wearied weepers
The storm-clouds hang muttering and frown:
On threshers and gleaners and reapers,
O Lord of the harvest, look down;
Oh for the harvest, the shout, and the crown!

'Not so,' saith the Lord of the reapers,
The Lord of the first and the last:
'O Mytoilers, My weary, My weepers,
What ye have, what remaineth, hold fast.
Hide in My heart till the vengeance be past.'





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