NOCTURNE
by: Julia Caroline Ripley
Dorr (1825-1913)
- BIRD beneath the midnight sky
As on my lonely couch I lie,
I hear thee singing in the dark,--
Why sing not I?
-
- No star-gleams meet thy wakeful eye;
No fond mate answers to thy cry;
No other voice, through all the dark,
Makes sweet reply.
Yet never sky-lark soaring high
- Where sun-lit clouds rejoicing lie,
Sang as thou singest in the dark,
Not mute as I!
-
- O lone, sweet spirit! tell me why
So far thy ringing love-notes fly,
While other birds, hushed by the dark,
Are mute as I?
-
- No prophecy of morn is nigh;
Yet as the somber hours glide by,
Bravely thou singest in the dark --
Why sing not I?
"Nocturne" is reprinted
from The Century (Vol. 32, issue 6), Oct., 1886. |
MORE POEMS BY JULIA CAROLINE RIPLEY DORR |
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