Dawn slips within my room to say good-by:
Buffeted, bruised, by autumn rain
All night,
While I lay sleeping, held to dreams, again
She comes from out the violated sky,
Dragging her tarnished light.
With dim leaves drooping, hanging all about
Her misty face, her eyes still wet,
She stands
Disconsolate beneath her veils — and yet
Bravely she spills one last bird’s note from out
Her summer-empty hands.
From A Canopic Jar (E.P Dutton & Company, 1921) by Leonora Speyer. Copyright © 1921 by Leonora Speyer. This poem is in the public domain.