This poem also appears in Cambridge Magazine Summer, 1920 [#] To Work Cambridge Magazine Summer, 1920 56 and Spring in New Hampshire 1920 [†] Claude McKay To Wor Claude McKay Spring in New Hampshire London Grant Richards Ltd. 1920 15 under the title "To Work."
The Dawn! The Dawn! The the Dawn, the†# crimson-tinted, comes
Out of the low still skies, over the hills,
Manhattan's roofs and New York's fantasic†# spires and cheerless domes!,—†#
The Dawn! Mymy† spirit to its spirit thrills.
Almost the mighty city is asleep,
No pushing crowd, no tramping, tramping feet.;†#
But here and there a few cars ,†# groaning, creep
Along, above,†# and underneath the street,
Bearing their strangely-ghostly burdens by, —†#
The women and the men of garish nights,
Their eyes wine-weakened and their clothes awry,
Grotesques beneath Nodding under†# the strong electric lights.
The shadows wane. The Dawn comes to New York. On through the waning shadows of New York,†#
And I go darkly-rebel to my work. Before the Dawn, I wend my way to work.†#