[Editor: This poem by Agnes Neale was published in Shadows and Sunbeams (1890).]
A Song.
In the morning — oh, the morning!
Lovely with a thousand hues,
Born of light the shades defying,
Jewelled o’er with flashing dews.
In the morning flowers were blooming,
In the morning all was fair,
Birds and hopes their bright wings trying
In the sunlit scented air.
Every rose its face uplifted
In the morning fresh and sweet,
Every blossom, beauty gifted,
Smiled the rosy morn to greet.
When the noontide — oh, the noontide!
Trod the earth with shining feet,
And the hours were full of silence,
Heavy with excess of sweet,
Then the flowers poured forth their breathings
In a perfumed, sudden flow;
Birds and hopes contented floating
On bright pinions to and fro.
Every rose its face uplifted
In the glorious day-god’s light;
Every blossom, beauty gifted,
Swam in floods of golden light.
In the night-time — oh, the night-time!
When the beauty all was o’er,
And the glory of the sunlight
Streamed upon the earth no more.
In the night-time winds came wailing,
In the night-time came the rain;
Birds and hopes alike were sleeping,
Never more to wake again.
And the lovely roses lifted
Never more each drooping head;
Every blossom, beauty gifted,
In the storm lay drowned and dead.
Source:
Agnes Neale, Shadows and Sunbeams, Adelaide: Burden & Bonython, 1890, pages 57-58
Editor’s notes:
morn = morning
o’er = over (pronounced the same as “oar”, “or”, and “ore”)
pinion = a bird’s wing; in more specific usage, the outer section of a bird’s wing; in broader usage, “pinions” refers to the wings of a bird (“pinion” may also refer specifically to a feather, especially a flight feather, or a quill)
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