On the smooth bottom of this clear blue sea,
MS.
[855] Compare Ariel's Song in The Tempest, act I. scene ii.—
Nothing of him that doth fade,
But doth suffer a sea-change
Into something rich and strange.
Sea-nymphs hourly ring his knell.—Ed.
[856] 1837.
Leapt from this rock, and surely, had not aid
Been near, must soon have breathed out life, betrayed
By fondly trusting to an element
Fair, and to others more than innocent;
Then had sea-nymphs sung dirges for him laid 1835.
Here ...
MS.
XVIII
ISLE OF MAN[857]
Did[858] pangs of grief for lenient time too keen,
Grief that devouring waves had caused—or guilt[859]
Which they had witnessed, sway[860] the man who built
This Homestead, placed where nothing could be seen,
Nought heard, of ocean troubled or serene? 5
A tired Ship-soldier[861] on paternal land,
That o'er the channel holds august command,
The dwelling raised,—a veteran Marine![862]
He, in disgust, turned from the neighbouring sea[863]
To shun the memory of a listless life 10
That hung between two callings. May no strife
More hurtful here beset him, doomed though free,
Self-doomed, to worse inaction, till his eye
Shrink from the daily sight of earth and sky!