Page:The poems of Richard Watson Gilder, Gilder, 1908.djvu/408

380 THE POET'S SECRET

"THE DAY BEGAN AS OTHER DAYS BEGIN"

day began as other days begin,

The round of work, the implacable city's din;

The New World's Babel, louder with each hour.

Then in a by-way,—a still, secret bower,—

A temple given to silence and to books;

And in its heart a sacred nook of nooks.

There, in the silence, from a priceless store

Of written tomes, a guardian of their lore

A manuscript uplifted to my view,

With reverent, loving hands—and then withdrew.