HO! but the darkness was densely black!
And young feet faltered and groped their way,
With never the gleam of a star, alack!
Nor a moonbeam's lamest ray! —
Blind of light as the blind of sight. —
And that was the night — the night!

And out of the blackness, vague and vast,
And out of the dark and the dearth, behold! —
A great ripe radiance grew at last
And burst like a bubble of gold,
Gilding the way that the feet danced on. —
And that was the dawn — The Dawn!