Morning and Evening by the Sea

by James Thomas Fields

At dawn the fleet stretched miles away
  On ocean-plains asleep,—
Trim vessels waiting for the day
  To move across the deep.
So still the sails they seemed to be
White lilies growing in the sea.

When evening touched the cape's low rim,
  And dark fell on the waves,
We only saw processions dim
  Of clouds, from shadowy caves;
These were the ghosts of buried ships
Gone down in one brief hour's eclipse!