Various Aurorae

An Aurora Borealis

by Dinah Craik (1826-1887)

Strange soft gleam, O ghostly dawn

That never brightens unto day;

Ere earth's mirk pale once more be drawn

Let us look out beyond the gray.

It is just midnight by the clock--

There is no sound on glen or hill,

The moaning linn adown its rock

Leaps, but the woods lie dark and still.

Austere against the kindling sky

Yon broken turret blacker grows;

Harsh light, to show remorselessly

Ruins night hid in kind repose!

Nay, beauteous light, nay, light that fills

The whole heaven like a dream of morn,

As waking upon northern hills

She smiles to find herself newborn--

Strange light, I know thou wilt not stay,

That many an hour must come and go

Before the pale November day

Break in the east, forlorn and slow.

Yet blest one gleam--one gleam like this,

When all heaven brightens in our sight,

And the long night that was and is

And shall be, vanishes in light;

O blest one hour like this! to rise

And see grief's shadows backward roll;

While bursts on unaccustomed eyes
The glad Aurora of the soul.

North Utsire