AT COMMON DAWN

At common dawn there is a voice of bird
So sweet, ’tis kin to pain,
For love of earthly life it needs be heard,
And lets not sleep again.

This bird I did one time at midnight hear
In wet November wood
Say to himself his lyric faint and clear
As one at daybreak should.

He ceased; the covert breathed no other sound,
Nor moody answer made;
But all the world at beauty’s worship found,
Was waking in the glade.

-Vivian Locke Ellis