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Home  »  An American Anthology, 1787–1900  »  542 Morn

Edmund Clarence Stedman, ed. (1833–1908). An American Anthology, 1787–1900. 1900.

By Helen FiskeJackson

542 Morn

IN what a strange bewilderment do we

Awake each morn from out the brief night’s sleep.

Our struggling consciousness doth grope and creep

Its slow way back, as if it could not free

Itself from bonds unseen. Then Memory,

Like sudden light, outflashes from its deep

The joy or grief which it had last to keep

For us; and by the joy or grief we see

The new day dawneth like the yesterday;

We are unchanged; our life the same we knew

Before. I wonder if this is the way

We wake from death’s short sleep, to struggle through

A brief bewilderment, and in dismay

Behold our life unto our old life true.