Coldly peers the morning star
Far away from me: and far
Gleams of sunlight coldly fill
Glimpses over the far hill
Where the night is waning: light
Straggles through the infinite
Slopes of sky: and with dull sight
Waking I may look upon
Coming day and night not gone.
Breaking gradually along
The long line of dusk, among
Chilly lapses of gray cloud
Steals the sun: and a new day,
Daughter of gray yesterday,
Lives upon this land of Wales,
When all sunlight struggling fails.
In the south a gray-built town
Wearing for her beauty's crown
Downs adream with thyme-sweet breath
Where a light air wandereth,
Lieth beautiful: and I
Underneath this holy sky
Wander through that hilly street
Out where limes grow summer-sweet
Down these ways a grandeur smiles
From the great cathedral, whiles
Red-tiled housetops glow around
Over the soft holy ground.
There the pleasant summer light
Gently lingers into night
Fair with stars, when sleep ensteeps
The sweet city, and she sleeps.
But the dawn is dead: and rain
Slants over the hills again
Here in Wales: and it is cold.