Awake! What color is a cloudless dawn
Not? The night was black enough, the gibbous
Moon mere silver ghost on the dewy lawns,
But morning brings a subtle rainbow chorus:
Is that not violet shading into green?
Is orange adequate for that fiery glow?
The transformation to full day seems slow,
But look away a moment and the scene
Has changed: the grayest mockingbird will have
A breast as yellow as a meadowlark;
The soothing blue of earlier gives way
To nearly painful brilliance. No more dark
Or near dark: now the shadows share the hues
Of dawn, and songbirds celebrate the news!