OUT TO SEA.

THE SKY IS THICK UPON THE SEA.

THE

HE sky is thick

The sea is sown with rain,

And in the passing gusts we hear
The clanging of the crane.

The cranes are flying to the south;
We cut the northern foam:
The dreary land they leave behind
Must be our future home.

Its barren shores are long and dark,
And gray its autumn sky;

But better these than this gray sea,

If but to land — and die!

143

R. H. STODDARD.

OUT TO SEA.

THE wind is blowing east,

And the waves are running free;

Let's hoist the sail at once,

And stand out to sea,
(You and me!)

I am growing more and more
A-weary of the shore;

It was never so before,

Out to sea!

The wind is blowing east,

How it swells the straining sail!

A little farther out

We shall have a jolly gale!
(Cling to me!)

The waves are running high,
And the gulls, how they fly!
We shall only see the sky
Out to sea.

The wind is blowing east

From the dark and bloody shore,
Where flash a million swords,
And the dreadful cannon roar !
(Woe is me!)

There's a curse upon the land!
(Is that blood upon my hand?)
What can we do but stand

From each dark rocky brim,

The full wine-tinted billows ebbed away

Leave on the golden rim

Of their huge bowl not one thin line of spray.

NOONDAY BY THE SEASIDE.

145

Above the short-grassed downs all broidered over
With scarlet pimpernel and silver clover,
Like spicy incense quivers the warm air ;
With piercing fervid heat

The noonday sunbeams beat

On the red granite sea-slabs, broad and bare.
And prone along the shore,
Basking in the fierce glare,

Lie sun-bronzed Titans, covered o'er
With shaggy, sea-weed hair.

Come in, under this vault of brownest shade,
By sea-worn arches made,
Where all the air, with a rich topaz light,
Is darkly bright.

'Neath these rock-folded canopies,

Shadowy and cool,

The crystal water lies

In many a glassy pool,

Whose green-veined sides, as they receive the light, Gleam like pale wells of precious malachite.

In the warm shallow water dip thy feet,
Gleaming like rose-hued pearls below the wave,
And lying in this hollow, sea-smoothed seat,
Gaze on the far-off white-sailed fisher fleet,
Framed in the twilight portal of our cave;

While I lie here, and gaze on thee.
Fairer art thou to me

Than Aphrodite, when the breathless deep
Wafted her, smiling in her rosy sleep,

Towards the green-myrtled shore, that in delight,
With starry fragrance, suddenly grew white;
Or than the shuddering girl,

Whose wide distended eyes,
Glassy, with dread surprise,

Saw the huge billow curl,

Foaming and bristling with its grisly freight;
While, twinkling from afar,

With iris-feathered heels, and falchion bright,
From the blue copse of heaven's dazzling height,
Her lover swooped, a flashing noon-tide star.

A mid-day dream hath lighted on thy brow,
And gently bends it down; thy fair eyes swim,
In liquid languor, lustreless and dim;
And slowly dropping now,

From the light loosened clasp of thy warm hand,
Making a ruddy shadow on the sand,

Falls a wine-perfumed rose, with crimson glow.

Sleep, my beloved! while the sultry spell
Of silent noon o'er sea and earth doth dwell;
Stoop thy fair graceful head upon my breast,
With its thick rolls of golden hair opprest,
My lily! and my breathing shall not sob
With one tumultuous sigh, nor my heart throb
With one irregular bound, that I may keep,
With tenderest watch, the treasure of thy sleep.
Droop gently down, in slumb’'rous, slow eclipse,
Fair fringed lids! beneath my sealing lips.

FRANCES ANNE KEMBLE.

SEA-TANGLE.

147

66

Go

SEA-TANGLE.

O show to earth your power!" the East
Wind cried

Commanding; and the swift, submissive seas, In ordered files, like liquid mountains, glide,

Moving from sky to sky with godlike ease.

Its march sublime was as a lifting world
Subsiding into glassy valleys vast:

No crest of foam upon its brow was curled;
But silent, dark, and terrible, it passed.

Below a cliff, where mused a little maid,
It struck. Its voice in thunder cried,

But, to delight her, instantly displayed

A fount of showering diamonds in the air.

"Be

"Go, cruel thing!" she said, “unloved by me; Go, tear the sailor from his happy sleep;

Drown navies in thy heartless perfidy ;

But spare our flowers, thou monster of the deep!"

As in obedience, the wave passed on,

Touching each shore with silver-sandalled feet, But tossed, in flying, in the sun which shone, A handful to her lap of sea-blooms sweet.