The dawn, enchanted and unchallenged hour,

Widened to day. The air of morning stirred

So fresh across my face that I was well,

And glad to be outdoors awake. I heard

Till noon the bells that quartered every hour.

Working, I wasted hope and words and hate.

Although my window faced the timeless sky,

A calendar insisted on the date.

All day a brave new world seemed possible:

Over enormous loneliness and space

A voice might call, the sudden light stream out,

The love of man for man transform one face.

I crossed the country of the afternoon .

My mind was tired with self, my eyes with sun.

The middle road I took through mortal fact

Was crowded, noisy, but the widest one.

In the liberal evening it was good

To shrug the daytime off, give up the blurred

White faces, all the anxious energy,

And the nameless fragmentary voices heard.

It was good to wring the memory clean,

In evening light, of all the hours of day,

And turn to love again, and living words,

And the heart's fire nothing could take away.