III

In a blue dusk the ship astern

Uplifts her slender spars,

With golden lights that seem to burn

Among the silver stars.

Like fleets along a cloudy shore

The constellations creep,

Like planets on the ocean floor

Our silent course we keep.

And over the endless plain,

Out of the night forlorn

Rises a faint refrain,

A song of the day to be born —

Watch, oh watch till ye find again

Life and the land of morn.

From a dim West to a dark East

Our lines unwavering head,

As if their motion long had ceased

And Time itself were dead.

Vainly we watch the deep below,

Vainly the void above,

They died a thousand years ago —

Life and the land we love.

But over the endless plain,

Out of the night forlorn

Rises a faint refrain,

A song of the day to be born —

Watch, oh watch till ye find again

Life and the land of morn.