Page:Poems Craik.djvu/256

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238
TWILIGHT IN THE NORTH.
TWILIGHT IN THE NORTH.
"Until the day break and the shadows flee away."

O THE long northern twilight between the clay and the night,
When the heat and the weariness of the world are ended quite:
When the hills grow dim as dreams, and the crystal river seems
Like that River of Life from out the Throne where the blessèd walk in white.

O the weird northern twilight, which is neither night nor day,
When the amber wake of the long-set sun still marks his western way:
And but one great golden star in the deep blue east afar
Warns of sleep, and dark, and midnight—of oblivion and decay.

O the calm northern twilight, when labor is all clone,
And the birds in drowsy twitter have dropped silent one by one: