Until the day shall break in glorious splendor,
Dispelling all the night's malignant glooms,
Up from the mists which shroud the lower valleys,
From rivers where the tempting lotus blooms,
I will arise and seek the upward pathway,
Ere yet the night winds stir,
Up to the heights where thoughts are pure and holy,
Upon the mount of myrrh.
While all the shadows linger, dense, reluctant,
In that long hour before the golden dawn,
I would press on to reach still higher levels,
Haunts of the graceful deer and gentle fawn.
There shall I sing and fill the night with sweetness,
With prayer and praise intense,
Till the first rosy beams of light illumine
This hill of frankincense.
