C.D. Warner, et al., comp. The Library of the World’s Best Literature.
An Anthology in Thirty Volumes. 1917.

The Dawning of the Day

’TWAS a balmy summer morning,

Warm and early,

Such as only June bestows;

Everywhere the earth adorning,

Dews lay pearly

In the lily-bell and rose.

Up from each green-leafy bosk and hollow

Rose the blackbird’s pleasant lay;

And the soft cuckoo was sure to follow:

’Twas the dawning of the day!

Through the perfumed air the golden

Bees flew round me;

Bright fish dazzled from the sea,

Till medreamt some fairy olden-

World spell bound me

In a trance of witcherie.

Steeds pranced round anon with stateliest housings,

Bearing riders prankt in rich array,

Like flushed revelers after wine-carousings:

’Twas the dawning of the day!

Then a strain of song was chanted,

And the lightly

Floating sea-nymphs drew anear.

Then again the shore seemed haunted

By hosts brightly

Clad, and wielding shield and spear!

Then came battle shouts—an onward rushing—

Swords, and chariots, and a phantom fray.

Then all vanished: the warm skies were blushing

In the dawning of the day!

Cities girt with glorious gardens,

Whose immortal

Habitants in robes of light

Stood, methought, as angel-wardens

Nigh each portal,

Now arose to daze my sight.

Eden spread around, revived and blooming;

When—lo! as I gazed, all passed away:

I saw but black rocks and billows looming

In the dim chill dawn of day!