Night Coming Out Of A Garden

Through the still air of night

Suddenly comes, alone and shrill,

Like the far-off voice of the distant light,

The single piping trill

Of a bird that has caught the scent of the dawn,

And knows that the night is over ;

(She has poured her dews on the velvet lawn

And drenched the long grass and the clover),

And now with her naked white feet

She is silently passing away,

Out of the garden and into the street,

Over the long yellow fields of the wheat,

Till she melts in the arms of the day.

And from the great gates of the East,

With a clang and a brazen blare,

Forth from the rosy wine and the feast

Comes the god with the flame-flaked hair ;

The hoofs of his horses ring

On the golden stones, and the wheels

Of his chariot burn and sing,

And the earth beneath him reels;

And forth with a rush and a rout

His myriad angels run,

And the world is awake with a shout,

" He is coming ! The sun ! The sun ! "

Taken from the New Adelphi Library edition of 'Selected Poems' by Lord Arthur Douglas Published by Martin Secker 1926Page 7