And I know it will with frightened eyes soon out of the forest creep!
As I watch the figures, ebon and gold, oft brighten by moonlight,
Till the white one wins and the brown one runs back to the forest night;
And, in vain, I leap to shadowy arms, as she crying flees from me,
Down shoreward runs, in a flash of flame dives back to the moonlit sea.
So, I drink and drink as the nights go by and the schooners day by day
Taking my heart with the white sails home where the sunsets fade away.
Till the sea-winds cease and the trees all sleep, and the hushed waves are all still,
And the moonlight slantwise falls across the forest track and hill
As I listening wait for the rustling sound with my dreaming eyes—unshut!