Here, in soft darkness where the whole night thro',
Dreamless, my quiet garden slumbered well.
Night's soothing fingers all adrip with dew
Crept in and out, weaving a mystic spell
O'er wilting bud and bell;
Now with deft touches deepening tints anew.
Now lifting up some languid suppliant who
Had wooed the sun too well.
In the grey twilight tall trees seem to yawn
And, waking, stretch their mighty limbs on high.
A small bird cheeps; and, silver in the dawn,
The jewelled wattles to a soft wind sigh.
Hard etched against the sky
The timbered hill-tops stand forth boldly drawn. . . .
A sunbeam, laughing, trips across the lawn,
And smiling day is nigh.
The kindly offices of night are done.
A grey thrush carols forth his matin hymn.
Then proud, triumphant of a new day won,
The magpie's trumpet tops a lofty limb.
By the pool's mirrored brim
The drowsing daisies open one by one:
"Wake, brothers, wake! Here comes our lord, the Sun!
Awake and worship him!"
First published in The Herald, 28 October 1931;
and later in
The Singing Garden by C.J. Dennis, 1935.
