Promise

Through the moil and the gloom they have issued
    To the steps of the upwinding hill, 
Where the sweet, dulcet pipes of tomorrow
    In their preluding rhapsodies trill.

With a thud comes a stir in the bosom,
    As there steals on the sight from afar,
Through a break of a cloud’s coiling shadow
    The gleam of a bright morning star!

This poem is in the public domain. Published in Poem-a-Day on August 28, 2021, by the Academy of American Poets.