Jump to content

Page:The poems of Richard Watson Gilder, Gilder, 1908.djvu/255

From Wikisource
This page has been proofread, but needs to be validated.
MERIDIAN
227

Bards there be the deep sky under
Who in high, authentic verse
Mysteries and moods rehearse
With a voice like Sinai's thunder,
Chanting to a world of wonder.


And those have sung whose melody,
Drawn from out the living heart
With a quick, unfaltering art,
Hath power to make the listener cry:
"God in heaven! It is I."


MERIDIAN

Henceforth before these feet
Sinks the downward way;
A little while to greet
The light and life of day,
Then night's slow fall
Ends all.


Now forward, heart elate,
Tho' steep the pathway slope.
Time yet for love and hate,
Joy, and joy's comrade, hope,
Ere night's slow fall
Ends all.


Still the warm sky is blue,
No fleck the sunlight mars;
'Twixt hills the sea gleams through;
With twilight come the stars;
And night's slow fall
Ends all.