Amy Lowell

Here you will find the Poem Before Dawn of poet Amy Lowell

Before Dawn

Life! Austere arbiter of each man's fate, 
By whom he learns that Nature's steadfast laws 
Are as decrees immutable; O pause 
Your even forward march! Not yet too late 
Teach me the needed lesson, when to wait 
Inactive as a ship when no wind draws 
To stretch the loosened cordage. One implores 
Thy clemency, whose wilfulness innate 
Has gone uncurbed and roughshod while the years 
Have lengthened into decades; now distressed 
He knows no rule by which to move or stay, 
And teased with restlessness and desperate fears 
He dares not watch in silence thy wise way 
Bringing about results none could have guessed.