THE NEW DAY

PRELUDE

THE night was dark, tho' sometimes a faint star A little while a little space made bright.

The night was dark and still the dawn seemed far
When, o'er the muttering and invisible sea,

Slowly, within the East, there grew a light
Which half was starlight, and half seemed to be
The herald of a greater. The pale white
Turned slowly to pale rose, and up the hight
Of heaven slowly climbed. The gray sea grew
Rose-colored like the sky. A white gull flew
Straight toward the utmost boundary of the East
Where slowly the rose gathered and increased.
There was light now, where all was black before:
It was as on the opening of a door

By one who in his hand a lamp doth hold
(Its flame being hidden by the garment's fold), -
The still air moves, the wide room is less dim.

More bright the East became, the ocean turned Dark and more dark against the brightening sky – Sharper against the sky the long sea line. The hollows of the breakers on the shore Were green like leaves whereon no sun doth shine, Tho' sunlight make the outer branches hoar. From.rose to red the level heaven burned; Then sudden, as if a sword fell from on high, A blade of gold flashed on the ocean's rim.

PART I

I-SONNET

(AFTER THE ITALIAN)

I KNOW not if I love her overmuch;

But this I know, that when unto her face

She lifts her hand, which rests there, still, a space,
Then slowly falls - 't is I who feel that touch.
And when she sudden shakes her head, with such
A look, I soon her secret meaning trace.
So when she runs I think 't is I who race.
Like a poor cripple who has lost his crutch
I am if she is gone; and when she goes,

I know not why, for that is a strange art –
As if myself should from myself depart.

I know not if I love her more than those

Who long her light have known; but for the rose She covers in her hair, I'd give my heart.

II-SONNET

(AFTER THE ITALIAN)

I LIKE her gentle hand that sometimes strays, To find the place, through the same book with mine;

I like her feet; and O, those eyes divine!

And when we say farewell, perhaps she stays Love-lingering then hurries on her ways,

As if she thought, "To end my pain and thine."
I like her voice better than new-made wine;
I like the mandolin whereon she plays.

HESITATION

And I like, too, the cloak I saw her wear,

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And the red scarf that her white neck doth cover,
And well I like the door that she comes through;

I like the riband that doth bind her hair

But then, in truth, I am that lady's lover,
And every new day there is something new.

III "A BARREN STRETCH THAT SLANTS TO THE SALT SEA'S GRAY"

A BARREN stretch that slants to the salt sea's gray, Rock-strewn, and scarred by fire, and rough with stubble,

With here and there a bold, bright touch of colorBerries and yellow leaves, that make the dolor

More dolorous still. Above, a sky of trouble.

But now a light is lifted in the air;

And tho' the sky is shadowed, fold on fold, By clouds that have the lightnings in their hold, That western gleam makes all the dim earth fair And the gray sea gold.

IV HESITATION

(A PORTRAIT)

TO-DAY I saw the picture of a man

Who, issuing from a wood, doth thrust apart
Strong-matted, thorny branches, whose keen smart
He heeds in nowise, if he only can

Win the red rose a maiden, like a fan,

Holds daintily. She, listening to her heart,

Hath looked another way. Ah, would she start,
And weep, and suffer sorrow, if he ran

For utter love of her, forever back

Into the shadows, which thrice darker were

Because her whiteness made their black more black!

A little while he waits, lest he should err.

Awhile he wonders, secretly. — Alack!
He could so gladly die or live for her.

V-LOVE GROWN BOLD

THIS is her picture painted ere mine eyes
Her ever holy face had looked upon.
She sitteth in a silence of her own;

Behind her, on the ground, a red rose lies;
Her thinking brow is bent, nor doth arise

Her gaze from that shut book whose word unknown
Her firm hands hide from her; there all alone
She sitteth in thought-trouble, maidenwise.

And now her lover waiting wondereth

Whether the joy of joys is drawing near;
Shall his brave fingers like a tender breath
That shut book open for her, wide and clear?
From him who her sweet shadow worshipeth
Now will she take the rose, and hold it dear?

INTERLUDE

THE sun rose swift and sent a golden gleam
Across the moving waters to the land;

Then for a little while it seemed to stand

In a clear place, midway 'twixt sea and cloud;

Whence rising swift again it past behind

Full many a long and narrow cloud-wrought beam Encased in gold unearthly, that was mined

From out the hollow caverns of the wind.

THE TRAVELER

These first revealed its face and next did shroud,
While still the daylight grew, and joy thereby

Lit all the windy stretches of the sky

Until a shadow darkened from the east
And sprang upon the ocean like a beast.

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PART II

I

THERE was a field green and fragrant with grass and flowers, and flooded with sunlight, and the air above it throbbed with the songs of birds. It was yet morning when a great darkness spread over the earth, and out of the darkness lightning, and after the lightning fire that consumed every green thing; and the singing birds fell dying upon the blackened grass. The thunder and the flame past, but it was still dark touched the field's edge and grew, little by little. Then one who listened heard - not the songs of birds again, but the flutter of broken wings.

till a ray of light

II THE TRAVELER

I MET a traveler on the road

Whose back was bent beneath a load;
His face was worn with mortal care,
His frame beneath its burden shook,
Yet onward, restless, he did fare
With mien unyielding, fixt, a look
Set forward in the empty air

As he were reading an unseen book.