Poems (Rossetti, 1901)/Until the Day break

by Christina Georgina Rossetti

UNTIL THE DAY BREAK.

WHEN will the day bring its pleasure?
 When will the night bring its rest?
Reaper and gleaner and thresher
Peer toward the east and the west:—
 The Sower He knoweth, and He knoweth best.

Meteors flash forth and expire,
 Northern lights kindle and pale;
These are the days of desire,
 Of eyes looking upward that fail;
 Vanishing days as a finishing tale.

Bows down the crop in its glory
 Tenfold, fiftyfold, hundredfold;
The millet is ripened and hoary,
 The wheat ears are ripened to gold:—
 Why keep us waiting in dimness and cold?

The Lord of the harvest, He knoweth
 Who knoweth the first and the last:
The Sower Who patiently soweth,
 He scanneth the present and past:
 He saith, "What thou hast, what remaineth, hold fast."

Yet, Lord, o'er Thy toil-wearied weepers
 The storm-clouds hang muttering and frown:
On threshers and gleaners and reapers,
 O Lord of the harvest, look down;
 Oh for the harvest, the shout, and the crown!

"Not so," saith the Lord of the reapers,
 The Lord of the first and the last:
"O My toilers, My weary, My weepers,
 What ye have, what remaineth, hold fast.
 Hide in My heart till the vengeance be past."