AFTER sleep, the waking; After night, dawn breaking; After silence long, A burst of song. We knew thou wert not gone, To leave us without champion -- Our first free voice 'mid servile tongues And secret sneers and bigot wrongs: With good Thor-hammer beating down The tyrant lie with tinsel crown; With message, now unsealed again, Of love to God in love to men. Who calls thy manner cold as snow? Can pure spring have the summer's glow, Or crocus-buds like roses blow? Who says the dawn is vague and gray? So clear, the sight can reach away To stainless peaks that shine afar And dim beyond the morning star. Choose who may the summer noon, Longing to be let alone, -- Force unstrung, and vigor gone. Welcome the sweet breath of Spring! Morning air to tempt the wing; Distance, cool and clear and still, For the eye to pierce at will. Welcome, O vanward voice! Sound on! Be strong! Rejoice! And so, in thy fresh history, Foretell the world-old mystery, Hinting what is to be For us, as now for thee. After sleep, the waking; After night, dawn breaking; After silence long, A burst of song. | Discover our Poem Explanations and Poet Analyses!Other Poems of Interest...GOOD FRIDAY HYMN by GEORGE SANTAYANA FRAGMENT THIRTY-SIX by HILDA DOOLITTLE SHERIDAN AT CEDAR CREEK by HERMAN MELVILLE SONNET: 104 by WILLIAM SHAKESPEARE ON A YOUNG BRIDE DROWNED IN THE BOSPHORUS by AGATHIAS SCHOLASTICUS EPIGRAM by DECIMUS MAGNUS AUSONIUS |