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Mandragora/In the Night

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Published in Mandragora (1917)

567737In the NightJohn Cowper Powys

IN THE NIGHT

A CRY like a child's cry lost in the rain
Came to me out of the mist.
I rose and answered that cry again,
    But it went sobbing over the plain
And died into the mist.

And where it had been came the scent of flowers
    Out of a world's distress,
With a moan of gathered thunder-showers
    And a gasping loneliness.

And the gods with their faces wet with crying,
    The old gods strange and wild,
Swept out upon us across the night,
    And — oh mystery, mystery infinite!
The gods and the weeping child and I
    Laughed and kissed in ecstasy!

This work is in the public domain in the United States because it was published before January 1, 1929.


The longest-living author of this work died in 1963, so this work is in the public domain in countries and areas where the copyright term is the author's life plus 60 years or less. This work may be in the public domain in countries and areas with longer native copyright terms that apply the rule of the shorter term to foreign works.

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