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A Song of Dawn
Published in the Agnostic Journal London, England 31 October 1903 (page 284)
'Mid the ponderous roar of the breakers free, and the gingle of laughing spray, The jolly old sea-god's daughters fair carol to rising day. I hear them above the sea-blast wild; beyond the water's bourn There floats the song: "Behind is daylight, and ever beyond is morn!"
I stood by the wet-lipped, sea-woo'd shore; the waters played light at my feet,— The weary day was dead, and the breathing of life was calm and sweet; Stilled for a space was the striving of men, and over the silver bay There came the echo: "The day dawns ever, and ever beyond is day!"
Out on the hills the tinkling sheep-bells ring up the inclines steep; The sun-rise over the tinted meadows arouses the world from sleep, Above the noise of the cities' roar is the cry of nature borne: "Beyond, beyond lies daylight ever, and ever beyond looms morn!"
To greet the stars I wander forth, and to bid the day good-bye; The trees upon the hill-tops bare grow dark as the day doth die. The world-twins, light and shadow, together mingle and clash in strife; For life is born of the striving of twain, so shadow and light make life.
A sun-beam flooding a chamber with light; a moon-path illuming the sea; The cry of the gulls as they endlessly circle; the skirl of the wind through a tree; The ceaseless bustle of feverish men 'neath the star-light's quiet scorn;— All these are echoes of parting daylight—are tokens that herald the morn.
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