BEFORE THE DAWN
Reading edition
Mystic hour of the day and night, Ere death of dark, ere yet is light, Night’s dying breath, and birth of day, Ere dreams and sleep have passed away: The time when the gray wind, along The edge of night, sings human song; And the deep chill is clearest felt, That Death in awful march has dealt: The hour ere sounds of day begin, What time Death walks most widely in: When o’er the pale and ashen land, In the dim day, upon the sand, The fan-like tracings of the feet Of Death on earth we yet may meet: When the last stars, the tired eyes Of night, fade ’neath the morning skies, And closed by eyelids of dawn’s fire, Before the breaking day retire: Then from the far, faint heaven’s blue, The first bird wakes creation new.
