| Rudyard Kipling (1865–1936). Verse: 1885–1918. 1922. | | | | The Dawn Wind |
| | (THE FIFTEENTH CENTURY)
AT two o’clock in the morning, if you open your window and listen, | |
| You will hear the feet of the Wind that is going to call the sun. | |
| And the trees in the shadow rustle and the trees in the moonlight glisten, | |
| And though it is deep, dark night, you feel that the night is done. | |
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| So do the cows in the field. They graze for an hour and lie down, | 5 |
| Dozing and chewing the cud; or a bird in the ivy wakes, | |
| Chirrups one note and is still, and the restless Wind strays on, | |
| Fidgeting far down the road, till, softly, the darkness breaks. | |
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| Back comes the Wind full strength with a blow like an angel’s wing, | |
| Gentle but waking the world, as he shouts: “The Sun! The Sun!” | 10 |
| And the light floods over the fields and the birds begin to sing, | |
| And the Wind dies down in the grass. It is day and his work is done. | |
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| So when the world is asleep, and there seems no hope of her waking | |
| Out of some long, bad dream that makes her mutter and moan, | |
| Suddenly, all men arise to the noise of fetters breaking, | 15 |
| And every one smiles at his neighbour and tells him his soul is his own! | | | | |
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