SUNSET.
(An Imitation.)
I STOOD on the shore at even,
And I looked out into the west,
Out over the pathless ocean,
As the sun sank down to rest.
I saw him dip into the billows,
And the sea was one blaze of light,
As if day's expiring effort
Was to blacken the darkness of night.
From my feet to the far horizon
Was a golden sparkling road,
A type of the path that leads us
From earth to God's abode.
As darkness fell on the waters,
I heard the sea-birds' cry,
And the mighty ocean answered
With its waves in an endless sigh.
Then I thought how like the sunlight
We find our hopes depart,
And the ocean's endless sighing
Found an echo in my heart.
F. W. D., St. Alban Hall.
College Rhymes (T. Shrimpton and Sons, Oxford), 1873.