Page:Poems and ballads (IA balladspoems00swinrich).pdf/71

55

A WASTED VIGIL.

I.

Couldst thou not watch with me one hour? Behold,

Dawn skims the sea with flying feet of gold,
With sudden feet that graze the gradual sea;
Couldst thou not watch with me?

II.

What, not one hour? for star by star the night

Falls, and her thousands world by world take flight;
They die, and day survives, and what of thee?
Couldst thou not watch with me?

III.

Lo, far in heaven the web of night undone,

And on the sudden sea the gradual sun;