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Classic and Contemporary Poetry
AS THE DAY BREAKS, by ERNEST MCGAFFEY First Line: I pray you, what's asleep? Last Line: The night is gone. | |||
I PRAY you, what's asleep? The lily-pads, and riffles, and the reeds; No longer inward do the waters creep, No longer outwardly their force recedes, And widowed Night, in blackness wide and deep, Resumes her weeds. I pray you, what's awake? A host of stars, the long, long milky way That stretches out, a glistening silver flake, All glorious beneath the moon's cold ray, And myriad reflections on the lake Where star-gleams lay. I pray you, what's astir? Why, naught but rustling leaves, dry, sere, and brown: The East's broad gates are yet a dusky blur, And star-gems twinkle in fair Luna's crown, And minor chords of wailing winds that were Die slowly down. I pray you, what's o'clock? Nay! who shall answer that but gray-stoled dawn? See, how from out the shadows looms yon rock, Like some great figure on a canvas drawn; And heard you not the crowing of the cock? The night is gone. | Discover our Poem Explanations and Poet Analyses!Other Poems of Interest...A CALIFORNIA IDYL by ERNEST MCGAFFEY LITTLE BIG HORN by ERNEST MCGAFFEY THE LITTLE ELF-MAN by JOHN KENDRICK BANGS GOD'S GARDEN by RICHARD EUGENE BURTON THE MARIPOSA LILY by INA DONNA COOLBRITH HIMALAYA by WILLIMINA L. ARMSTRONG THE UNKNOWN GOD by ANNA LETITIA BARBAULD BRUCE: HOW KING ROBERT WAS HUNTED BY THE SLEUTH-HOUND by JOHN BARBOUR |
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