Dawn and the Day

Henry Thayer Niles (1828-1901) was a nineteenth-century author, and The Dawn and the Day, or, The Buddha and the Christ was published in 1894. It is a long poem on a religious subject, in which the founders of two of the world’s great faiths are set beside each other and considered with respect.

The work belongs to a nineteenth-century current of writing in English that was newly curious about the religions of Asia. The age had better translations of Eastern scriptures than ever before, and many writers wondered what a serious comparison with Christianity might reveal. Niles takes up that question in verse and takes it seriously. The epic manner he chooses, with its dignified measure and its division into books, shows how large he thought the subject was.

This recording is of the first part, and it opens with a preface and an introduction before moving into the first books of the poem. There are ten files in all, with a total length of nearly four hours. LibriVox volunteers shared the reading.

Today the poem is interesting both as literature and as a document of its time: a record of how an educated reader in the 1890s approached the meeting of religious traditions. Listeners who like long poems, comparative religion or Victorian-era seriousness should find it rewarding. Because the poem is long and the pace deliberate, it is best taken in sessions of one or two books at a time. The verse repays attention to its rhythm, and the preface and introduction are worth hearing first, since they explain what the author hoped to achieve and how he wished the poem to be read.