O STRANGE soft gleam, o ghostly dawn <br />That never brightens unto day; <br />Ere earth's mirk pale once more be drawn <br />Let us look out beyond the gray. <br /> <br />It is just midnight by the clock-- <br />There is no sound on glen or hill, <br />The moaning linn adown its rock <br />Leaps, but the woods lie dark and still. <br /> <br />Austere against the kindling sky <br />Yon broken turret blacker grows; <br />Harsh light, to show remorselessly <br />Ruins night hid in kind repose! <br /> <br />Nay, beauteous light, nay, light that fills <br />The whole heaven like a dream of morn, <br />As waking upon northern hills <br />She smiles to find herself new-born,-- <br /> <br />Strange light, I know thou wilt not stay, <br />That many an hour must come and go <br />Before the pale November day <br />Break in the east, forlorn and slow. <br /> <br />Yet blest one gleam--one gleam like this, <br />When all heaven brightens in our sight, <br />And the long night that was and is <br />And shall be, vanishes in light: <br /> <br />O blest one hour like this! to rise <br />And see grief's shadows backward roll; <br />While bursts on unaccustomed eyes <br />The glad Aurora of the soul.<br /><br />Dinah Maria Mulock Craik<br /><br />http://www.poemhunter.com/poem/an-aurora-borealis/
