Thoughts Of Early Dawn

Who are you that awake me in the morning? Not the reveille that sweetens with its sounds The soldier's hardy life. Nor can you be The chapel bell that slowly rings to prayer.

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Your steps fall heavy on the road. You bring Thought, light, and sound, my sacred Trinity. What if you rouse the slave who goes to work? What if you call the prodigal to sleep?

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Not many were the flowers; and few, the lilies; And I did long to reap the lily-treasure. I eyed the lilies all, and walked into The garden rich to clasp them in mine arms.

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And in the garden, all the roses smiled; Under their veils, the violets bowed down. I passed them by. The pansies looked erect And scentless, wrapped in thought: by them, I stopped.

Sweet child, upon thy tomb, a rosebud blossomed; The hand would reach at it, but it cannot. And on its path the wind would blow on it; But ere he light, it dies into a kiss.

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Like church lights shine the blossoms in the light; And butterflies are drunk with airy fragrance; Yet neither for fragrance nor for light, I come Into the quiet garden as before.

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I come to see the children beautiful, Running and playing, full of beaming smiles, Children that make of grassy beds a heaven And rise like miracles among the flowers.

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The brows of righteous men pass slow before me, Clouds calm and wide, full of refreshing rain; And from the lightless depths of hell, methinks I hear breast-beatings and dark blasphemies. And suddenly, I mingle speech with rime, The rime that above human things and woes, Like the Platonic Diotima, rises A prophetess upon a path sublime Towards worlds of thought and earth-transcending loves.

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Whatever be thy substance, O bright gleam, Iron or stone, silver or wind, air-cloud Or dream, my longing is the same for thee! Within me thought and hands and art and science Struggle to build together the same temple. Maternal Rhea treasures in her breast All marbles: purple, green, and white. I searched And found them in your care, Taygetus Snake-like, and Cyclads fair, and Attica. And now the columns stand a forest speechless And motionless; and among them, the rhythms And thoughts move in slow measures constantly. And in their depths, light-written images Show Love that leads and Soul that follows him.

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The axe and hammer of the priest black-robed Struck down the holy idols of the temples; And yet the soul of the ruins perished not! It climbed the heaven's spaces as a star Until new sculptured lilies came to life In master minds, the gardens of the wise. Thus axe and hammer of the priest black-robed Broke not the holy idols of the temples!

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Sweet child, upon thy tomb a rosebud blossomed; Is it thy joy or grief? Thy heart or thou? If mind, remember me! If mouth, speak forth! "I am the movement of the motionless, The lightning flushing from the source of nothing!"

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Thy cup is foaming with its black strong wine; Bring to our fountain thy white-foaming cup, And brighten into red thy black strong wine With the fresh water of our fountain here.

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I have a thought of dew; a heart of flame! The wine vat boils; the spring flows fresh and cool; And I did mingle in my chiseled cup The black strong wine with the sweet water dew.

A hundred years! A hundred years are gone Of Grecian mornings and of Grecian sunsets! Make them a coffin wide, O carpenter, And bury them, the hapless dead, in silence!

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A hundred dragons watch a queen black-robed, A widowed orphan queen in a lone castle; And they dig up the scattered fragments of An ancient and exhaustless treasure, once Her own, and bring them as their gifts to her! "I need no fragments! May the hour be cursed And you, dragons, who hold me prisoner! I dream of her, the living perfect land Where I was queen! While here, I am a slave!"

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Loud-crying birds that fly toward the heights, White swans, and swans that cut so tenderly The silent waters of the lake in thoughts Of silent sorrow, tameless birds and weary! O swans that dream the conquest of the sun, And swans that wait the coming of deep sleep!

Within me lies a far and secret kingdom Where I can see lake-swans and winds like you!

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My banished life has found a home near thee; And by thy grace, I am thy priest, O Phoebus! And taking from thy bright divinity, I made the sun-born maiden to thy glory! I lifted to thine image my loud praises, And lo, bells hoarse and tuneless answered them. Yet what of it? Thine endless praise I am, And paeans follow on my dithyrambs!