|   | 
| COLD may lie the day, |  | 
|     And bare of grace; |  | 
| At night I slip away |  | 
|     To the Singing Place. |  | 
|   | 
| A border of mist and doubt |         5 | 
|     Before the gate, |  | 
| And the Dancing Stars grow still |  | 
|     As hushed I wait. |  | 
| Then faint and far away |  | 
|     I catch the beat |         10 | 
| In broken rhythm and rhyme |  | 
|     Of joyous feet,— |  | 
| Lifting waves of sound |  | 
|     That will rise and swell |  | 
| (If the prying eyes of thought |         15 | 
|     Break not the spell), |  | 
| Rise and swell and retreat |  | 
|     And fall and flee, |  | 
| As over the edge of sleep |  | 
|     They beckon me. |         20 | 
| And I wait as the seaweed waits |  | 
|     For the lifting tide; |  | 
| To ask would be to awake,— |  | 
|     To be denied. |  | 
| I cloud my eyes in the mist |         25 | 
|     That veils the hem,— |  | 
| And then with a rush I am past,— |  | 
|     I am Theirs, and of Them! |  | 
| And the pulsing chant swells up |  | 
|     To touch the sky, |         30 | 
| And the song is joy, is life, |  | 
|     And the song am I! |  | 
| The thunderous music peals |  | 
|     Around, o’erhead— |  | 
| The dead would awake to hear |         35 | 
|     If there were dead; |  | 
| But the life of the throbbing Sun |  | 
|     Is in the song, |  | 
| And we weave the world anew, |  | 
|     And the Singing Throng |         40 | 
| Fill every corner of space— |  | 
|   | 
| Over the edge of sleep |  | 
|     I bring but a trace |  | 
| Of the chants that pulse and sweep |  | 
|     In the Singing Place. |         45 | 
|   | 
 
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