Andromeda, and Other Poems/The Night Bird

by Charles Kingsley

POEMS

CONNECTED WITH 1848-9.

THE NIGHT BIRD.

i.
A FLOATING, a floating
Across the sleeping sea,
All night I heard a singing bird
Upon the topmast tree.

ii.
'Oh came you off the isles of Greece,
Or off the banks of Seine;
Or off some tree in forests free,
Which fringe the western main?'

iii.
'I came not off the old world
Nor yet from off the new—
But I am one of the birds of God
Which sing the whole night through.'

iv.
'Oh sing, and wake the dawning—
Oh whistle for the wind;
The night is long, the current strong,
My boat it lags behind.'

v.
'The current sweeps the old world,
The current sweeps the new;
The wind will blow, the dawn will glow,
Ere thou hast sailed them through.'