Poetry Explorer- Classic Contemporary Poetry, STUDIES FOR PICTURES: 4. IN THE MORNING, by BAYARD TAYLOR


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Classic and Contemporary Poetry

STUDIES FOR PICTURES: 4. IN THE MORNING, by                     Poet's Biography
First Line: The lamps were thick; the air was hot
Last Line: Your evil spirits flee away.
Alternate Author Name(s): Taylor, James Bayard
Subject(s): Morning; Sin


THE lamps were thick; the air was hot;
The heavy curtains hushed the room;
The sultry midnight seemed to blot
All life but ours in vacant gloom.

You spoke: my blood in every vein
Throbbed, as by sudden fever stirred,
And some strange whirling in my brain
Subdued my judgment, as I heard.

Ah, yes! when men are dead asleep,
When all the tongues of day are still
The heart must sometimes fail to keep
Its natural poise 'twixt good and ill.

You knew too well its blind desires,
Its savage instincts, scarce confessed
I could not see you touch the wires,
But felt your lightning in my breast

For you, Life's web displayed its flaws,
The wrong which Time transforms to right:
The iron mesh of social laws
Was but a cobweb in your sight.

You showed that tempting freedom, where
The passions bear their perfect fruit,
The cheats of conscience cannot scare,
And Self is monarch absolute.

And something in me seemed to rise,
And trample old obedience down:
The serf sprang up, with furious eyes,
And clutched at the imperial crown.

That fierce rebellion overbore
The arbiter that watched within,
Till Sin so changed an aspect wore,
It was no longer that of Sin.

You gloried in the fevered flush
That spread, defiant, o'er my face,
Nor thought how soon this morning's blush
Would chronicle the night's disgrace.

I wash my eyes; I bathe my brow;
I see the sun on hill and plain:
The old allegiance claims me now,
The old content returns again.

Ah, seek to stop the sober glow
And healthy airs that come with day,
For when the cocks at dawning crow
Your evil spirits flee away.





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