ar-off and veiled it seems to me,
The face of yester dreamy sea,
That breathed so soft its shining waters
Pungent with odors of rosemary.
No sculptured arabesque to-day,
But unhewn strength in mighty play,
That heaves the ship on bursting billow
And smites the cliff in its ancient way!
Beneath its silken vestments beat
A lion heart of jungle heat;
Its couchant soul delights in battle
To fell the rock and to whelm the fleet.
ast promise is the sea, and vast
Its pain. Its secret is held fast,—
Now hope's wide open eye and sunny,
And now a weeping and wailing past.
(I have a grievance unredrest
That stings my heart and rends my breast,—
Perhaps it gathers in its bosom
The sorrows wild of the world's opprest?)
Deformity or pain unstrings
The music of the soul of things,—
Ah, suns burn bright in eyes of panther,
And lightnings leap in the eagle's wings!