O sweet, delusive Noon, Which the morning climbs to find, O moment sped too soon, And morning left behind.

The speaker apostrophizes “Noon” as a beautiful but deceptive pinnacle of the day—an instant the morning “climbs to find,” only for it to vanish almost as soon as it arrives. The lines compress a familiar human experience: anticipation builds toward a hoped-for culmination, yet fulfillment proves fleeting, and one suddenly finds oneself on the far side of it, with the earlier freshness already “left behind.” In Jackson’s lyric mode, noon can also suggest the mid-point of life or happiness—radiant, seemingly stable, but in truth a passing moment. The tone is tender and elegiac, emphasizing time’s swift, irreversible motion.