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Classic and Contemporary Poetry


AUBADE TRISTE by AGNES MARY F. ROBINSON

First Line: THE LAST PALE RANK OF POPLAR-TREES
Last Line: THE DAY HAS COME FOR ALL.

THE last pale rank of poplar-trees
Begins to glimmer into light,
With stems and branches faintly white
Against a heaven one dimly sees
Beyond the failing night.

A point of grey that grows to green
Fleck'd o'er with rainy yellow bars, --
A sudden whitening of the stars,
A pallor where the moon has been,
A peace the morning mars;

When, lo! a shiver of the breeze
And all the ruffled birds awake,
The rustling aspens stir and shake;
For, pale, beyond the pallid trees,
The dawn begins to break.

And now the air turns cool and wan,
A drizzling rain begins to fall,
The sky clouds over with a pall --
The night, that was for me, is gone;
The day has come for all.



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