What Do I Care for Morning by Helene Johnson

What Do I Care for Morning

by Helene Johnson

What do I care for morning,

For a shivering aspen tree,

For sun flowers and sumac

Opening greedily?

What do I care for morning,

For the glare of the rising sun,

For a sparrow’s noisy prating,

For another day begun?

Give me the beauty of evening,

The cool consummation of night,

And the moon like a love-sick lady,

Listless and wan and white.

Give me a little valley

Huddled beside a hill,

Like a monk in a monastery,

Safe and contented and still,

Give me the white road glistening,

A strand of the pale moon’s hair,

And the tall hemlocks towering

Dark as the moon is fair.

Oh what do I care for morning,

Naked and newly born—

Night is here, yielding and tender—

What do I care for dawn!