In the log of 28th April, Alex was waxing fairly lyrical about their surroundings and came up with most of the first line of Dawn as being appropriate to the situation. Having a limited library, he expressed the desire "wish I could remember it all". He received a couple of responses and this is one of them (I'm assuming that the copyright ran out a while ago!):
AWAKE! for Morning in the Bowl of Night
Has flung the
Stone that puts the Stars to Flight:
And Lo! the Hunter of the East has
caught
The Sultan's Turret in a Noose of Light.
Dreaming
when Dawn's Left Hand was in the Sky
I heard a Voice within the Tavern cry,
"Awake, my Little ones, and fill the Cup
Before Life's Liquor in its Cup
be dry."
Here
with a Loaf of Bread beneath the Bough,
A Flask of Wine, a Book of
Verse--and Thou
Beside me singing in the Wilderness--
And Wilderness is
Paradise enow.
"How
sweet is mortal Sovranty!"--think some:
Others--"How blest the Paradise to
come!"
Ah, take the Cash in hand and wave the Rest;
Oh, the brave Music
of a distant Drum!
'Tis
all a Chequer-board of Nights and Days
Where Destiny with Men for Pieces
plays:
Hither and thither moves, and mates, and slays,
And one by one
back in the Closet lays.
The
Moving Finger writes; and, having writ,
Moves on: nor all thy Piety nor Wit
Shall lure it back to cancel half a Line,
Nor all thy Tears wash out a
Word of it.
All material on this site is © Copyright 2005