Poems of London, and Other Verses

POEMS OF LONDON
AND OTHER VERSES
JOHN PRESLAND
MACMILLAN AND CO., LIMITED ST. MARTIN'S STREET, LONDON 1918
COPYRIGHT
CONTENTS
POEMS OF LONDON
OTHER VERSES

Dawn over London; all the pearly light Trembles and quivers over street and park, The houses are a strange, unearthly white; Pavement and roof grow slowly, palely bright; There is no shadow, neither light nor dark But everything is steeped in glimmering dawn.
Oh, purity of dawn; oh, milk-and-pearl Translucent splendour, spreading far and wide, As on a yellow beach the small waves curl —Almost as noiselessly as buds unfurl— On windless mornings with the rising tide, So flows the dawn o'er London, all asleep.
Indeed, I think that heaven is a sea, And London is a city of old rhymes Sunk fathoms deep in its transparency, That folk of living lands may dream they see And muse on, and have thoughts about our times, How we were great and splendid, and now gone.