Poetry Explorer


Classic and Contemporary Poetry


PRELUDE by JOHN DRINKWATER

Poem Explanation Poet Analysis

First Line: THOUGH BLACK THE NIGHT, I KNOW UPON THE SKY
Last Line: OF DEATH SHALL COME, THE GOSPEL OF HER LIGHT.
Subject(s): MORNING;

THOUGH black the night, I know upon the sky,
A little paler now, if clouds were none,
The stars would be. Husht now the thickets lie,
And now the birds are moving one by one, --
A note -- and now from bush to bush it goes --
A prelude -- now victorious light along
The west will come till every bramble glows
With wash of sunlit dew shaken in song.
Shaken in song; O heart, be ready now,
Cold in your night, be ready now to sing.
Dawn as it wakes the sleeping bird on bough
Shall summon you to instant reckoning, --
She is your dawn, O heart, -- sing, till the night
Of death shall come, the gospel of her light.



Home: PoetryExplorer.net