| Louis Untermeyer, ed. (1885–1977). Modern British Poetry. 1920. |
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| Wilfrid Wilson Gibson. 1878– |
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| 94. Prelude |
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| AS one, at midnight, wakened by the call | |
| Of golden-plovers in their seaward flight, | |
| Who lies and listens, as the clear notes fall | |
| Through tingling silence of the frosty night— | |
| Who lies and listens, till the last note fails, | 5 |
| And then, in fancy, faring with the flock | |
| Far over slumbering hills and dreaming dales, | |
| Soon hears the surges break on reef and rock; | |
| And, hearkening, till all sense of self is drowned | |
| Within the mightier music of the deep, | 10 |
| No more remembers the sweet piping sound | |
| That startled him from dull, undreaming sleep; | |
| So I, first waking from oblivion, heard, | |
| With heart that kindled to the call of song, | |
| The voice of young life, fluting like a bird, | 15 |
| And echoed that light lilting; till, ere long, | |
| Lured onward by that happy, singing-flight, | |
| I caught the stormy summons of the sea, | |
| And dared the restless deeps that, day and night, | |
| Surge with the life-song of humanity. | 20 |
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