Lucy Maud Montgomery (1874-1942)
Sunrise along Shore
1Athwart the harbor lingers yet
2 The ashen gleam of breaking day,
3And where the guardian cliffs are set
4 The noiseless shadows steal away;
5But all the winnowed eastern sky
6 Is flushed with many a tender hue,
7 And spears of light are smiting through
8The ranks where huddled sea-mists fly.
9Across the ocean, wan and gray,
10 Gay fleets of golden ripples come,
11For at the birth-hour of the day
12 The roistering, wayward winds are dumb.
13The rocks that stretch to meet the tide
14 Are smitten with a ruddy glow,
15 And faint reflections come and go
16Where fishing boats at anchor ride.
17All life leaps out to greet the light --
18 The shining sea-gulls dive and soar,
19The swallows whirl in dizzy flight,
20 And sandpeeps flit along the shore.
21From every purple landward hill
22 The banners of the morning fly,
23 But on the headlands, dim and high,
24The fishing hamlets slumber still.
25One boat alone beyond the bar
26 Is sailing outward blithe and free,
27To carry sturdy hearts afar
28 Across those wastes of sparkling sea;
29Staunchly to seek what may be won
30 From out the treasures of the deep,
31 To toil for those at home who sleep
32And be the first to greet the sun.
Notes
20] sandpeeps: sandpipers.
Online text copyright © 2009, Ian Lancashire (the Department of English) and the University of Toronto.
Published by the Web Development Group, Information Technology Services, University of Toronto Libraries.
Original text: L. M. Montgomery, The Watchman and Other Poems (Toronto: McClelland, Goodchild and Stewart, 1916): 29-30. PS 8525 O68W3 Robarts Library.
First publication date:
28
November
1901
Publication date note: Youth's Companion (Nov. 28, 1901): 630
RPO poem editor: Ian Lancashire
RP edition: RPO 1998.
Recent editing: 2:2002/4/4
Rhyme: ababcddc, ababcbbc
Other poems by Lucy Maud Montgomery
