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Classic and Contemporary Poetry


THE VOICE by CLINTON SCOLLARD

First Line: I HEAR IT IN THE TWILIGHT; I CATCH IT IN THE DAWN
Last Line: "OUT OF THE DAYS DEPARTED STILL CALL TO ME ""COME BACK!"
Subject(s): AGING; VOICES; YOUTH;

I HEAR it in the twilight; I catch it in the dawn,
When all the eastern skyline is laced with rose and fawn;
It cries me in the noonday amid the cold or heat;
It shouts me in the forest; it hails me in the street;
I hark its sudden bidding on many an upland track;
Out of the days departed it summons me -- "Come back!"

With sweet and tender tremors the heart o' me it thrills;
I cast aside old sorrows; I rise above old ills;
Whate'er the goal I'm seeking, I need nor spur nor goad;
I am a gypsy vagrant footing a rainbow road;
The tide about me beating leaps swift from ebb to flood,
And re-awakened Aprils go singing through my blood.

Throughout the scheme of being I find nor fleck nor flaw;
The vivid joy of living, that is my only law;
It may be but a moment the rapture-dream endures,
And yet, -- ah, shining marvel! -- what weariness it cures!
O Voice of Youth, O echo from Time's far-trodden track,
Out of the days departed still call to me "Come back!"



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