A Reed by the River/Dawn on the Sea
DAWN ON THE SEA
A cry rolls in from the tumultuous deep;
"Make way! Make way! The mighty rideth on!"
But earth awakes not from her flowery sleep
Till floats the flaming banner of the dawn;
"Make way! Make way!"—It is a ghostly cry;
A king in exile moaneth in a dream,
He sees his chariots roll against the sky,
Ten thousand spears upon his pathway gleam;
He wrestles with the wind and smites the shore,
His heart girt round with maddening prison bands;
But lo, a silver gull is skimming o'er
The waking waves that lap the soft-lipped sands;
Back rolls that cry, mocked by a new-born light;
The meadows, smiling, slip from out their night.
"Make way! Make way! The mighty rideth on!"
But earth awakes not from her flowery sleep
Till floats the flaming banner of the dawn;
"Make way! Make way!"—It is a ghostly cry;
A king in exile moaneth in a dream,
He sees his chariots roll against the sky,
Ten thousand spears upon his pathway gleam;
He wrestles with the wind and smites the shore,
His heart girt round with maddening prison bands;
But lo, a silver gull is skimming o'er
The waking waves that lap the soft-lipped sands;
Back rolls that cry, mocked by a new-born light;
The meadows, smiling, slip from out their night.