Helen Louise Birch. And So the Days Go by. Harriet Monroe, ed. Poetry: A Magazine of Verse. 1912-22

Harriet Monroe, ed. (1860–1936). Poetry: A Magazine of Verse. 1912–22.

And So the Days Go by

By Helen Louise Birch


AND so the days go by,
All filled with majesty and stateliness.
The eastways slant of the morning beams,
So fresh,
Turns subtly into noon,	5
And with a secrecy beyond belief
The hours pass
And the long rays slant into the west.
They tint the heavy phlox-heads red like fire,
And make black shadow of the pale wild currant.	10
The hills beyond the lake drift far away,
Unreal and blue.

Unreal and pure and fey—
(Oh, the long hour and the rising mist!)—
Is the frail beauty of the twilight grey!	15