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Classic and Contemporary Poetry
ANTHEM OF DAWN, by MADISON JULIUS CAWEIN Poet's Biography First Line: Then up the orient heights to the zenith that balanced the crescent Last Line: Thou hallelujah of heaven! Hosanna of earth! | |||
I THEN up the orient heights to the zenith that balanced the crescent,-- Up and far up and over,--the heaven grew erubescent, Vibrant with rose and with ruby from hands of the harpist Dawn, Smiting symphonic fire on the firmament's barbition; And the East was a priest who adored with offerings of gold and of gems, And a wonderful carpet unrolled for the inaccessible hems Of the glittering robes of her limbs; that, lily and amethyst, Swept glorying on and on through temples of cloud and mist. II Then out of the splendour and richness, that burned like a magic stone, The torrent suffusion that deepened and dazzled and broadened and shone, The pomp and the pageant of colour, triumphal procession of glare, The sun, like a king in armour, breathing splendour from feet to hair, Stood forth with majesty girdled, as a hero who towers afar Where the bannered gates are bristling hells and the walls are roaring war: And broad on the back of the world, like a Cherubin's fiery blade, The effulgent gaze of his aspect fell in glittering accolade. III Then billowing blue, like an ocean, rolled from the shores of dawn to even: And the stars, like rafts, went down: and the moon, like a ghost-ship driven, A feather of foam, from port to port of the cloud-built isles that dotted, With pearl and cameo, bays of the day, her canvas webbed and rooted, Lay lost in the gulf of heaven: while over her mixed and melted The beautiful children of Morn, whose bodies are opal-belted; The beautiful daughters of Dawn, who, over and under and after The rivered radiance wrestled; and rainbowed heaven with laughter Of halcyon sapphire.--O Dawn! thou visible mirth, Thou hallelujah of heaven! hosanna of Earth! | Discover our Poem Explanations and Poet Analyses!Other Poems of Interest...A COIGN OF THE FOREST by MADISON JULIUS CAWEIN A DREAM SHAPE by MADISON JULIUS CAWEIN A FALLEN BEECH by MADISON JULIUS CAWEIN A FLOWER OF THE FIELDS by MADISON JULIUS CAWEIN A NIGHT IN JUNE by MADISON JULIUS CAWEIN A SLEET-STORM IN MAY by MADISON JULIUS CAWEIN A TWILIGHT MOTH by MADISON JULIUS CAWEIN ADVENTURERS by MADISON JULIUS CAWEIN AFTER RAIN by MADISON JULIUS CAWEIN ALONG THE OHIO by MADISON JULIUS CAWEIN |
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