Poems (Dorr)/The Hour

by Julia Caroline Dorr

THE HOUR

What is the hour of the day?
 O watchman, can you tell?
Hark! from the tower of Time
 Strikes the alarum-bell!

The strokes I cannot count.
 O watchman, can you see
On the misty dial-plate
 What hours remain for me?

I know the rosy dawn
 Faded—how long ago!—
Lost in the radiant depths
 Of morning's golden glow.

Then all the mountain tops
 Stood breathless at high noon,
While earth for brief repose
 Put off her sandal shoon.

Now faster fly the hours—
 The afternoon is here;
O watchman in the tower,
 Tell me, is sunset near?

Yet—why care I to know?—
 Beyond the sunset bars
Upon the dead day wait
 The brightest of the stars!