Poetry Explorer- Classic Contemporary Poetry, TO DOCTOR HAKE, by ROBERT LOUIS STEVENSON


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Classic and Contemporary Poetry

TO DOCTOR HAKE, by                 Poet Analysis     Poet's Biography
First Line: In the beloved hour that ushers day
Last Line: And with a tide of song his silence broke.
Alternate Author Name(s): Stevenson, Robert Lewis Balfour
Subject(s): Dawn; Music & Musicians; Sunrise


IN the beloved hour that ushers day,
In the pure dew, under the breaking grey,
One bird, ere yet the woodland quires awake,
With brief reveille summons all the brake:
Chirp, chirp, it goes; nor waits an answer long;
And that small signal fills the grove with song.

Thus on my pipe I breathed a strain or two;
It scarce was music, but 'twas all I knew.
It was not music, for I lacked the art,
Yet what but frozen music filled my heart?
Chirp, chirp, I went, nor hoped a nobler strain;
But Heaven decreed I should not pipe in vain,
For, lo! not far from there, in secret dale,
All silent, sat an ancient nightingale.
My sparrow notes he heard; thereat awoke;
And with a tide of song his silence broke.





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