The Kiplings and India: A Collection of Writings from British India, 1870-1900

How the Day Broke (The Drawing Room Song) (Rudyard Kipling)

The night was very silent, and the moon was going down,
        And the winds of dawn were chilling all the Sea.
The full tide turned in silver o'er the ridge's length of
              brown,
When a little muffled figure left the dim-seen, sleeping
              town,
        By the white road that leadeth to the Sea.
                                   ——
The night was very silent, and the tide was falling fast,
        And the dawn was breaking dimly o'er the Sea;
The early boats like shadows with their lanterns
             flitted past,
And the little muffled figure by the sand-hills stayed at last,
        Where the waste land opens on the sea.
                                   ——
The night is well-nigh ended, and the Moon has
               gone to rest
       And the winds of dawn are lashing all the Sea;
But the weariness is over and the doubt is all confessed,
And the hope is rearisen and the wrong is all 
               redressed,
As the little muffled figure lays her head upon his breast
      Who has waited for her coming by the Sea. 
The night is passed and done with, and the say is
               cold and white
      As the loosed winds riot o'er the Sea,
But the woe is passed and done with as a shadow of
               the night,
And the little muffled figure flitteth, singing, out of  
             sight
      To the fishing town that faces the Sea.  

 

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