Page:A channel passage and other poems (IA channelpassageot00swinrich).pdf/27

So plunges the downward swimmer, embraced of the
water unfathomed of man,
The darkness unplummeted, icier than seas in midwinter,
for blessing or ban;
And swiftly and sweetly, when strength and breath fall
short, and the dive is done,
Shoots up as a shaft from the dark depth shot, sped
straight into sight of the sun;
And sheer through the snow-soft water, more dark than
the roof of the pines above,
Strikes forth, and is glad as a bird whose flight is impelled
and sustained of love.
As a sea-mew's love of the sea-wind breasted and ridden
for rapture's sake
Is the love of his body and soul for the darkling delight
of the soundless lake:
As the silent speed of a dream too living to live for a
thought's space more
Is the flight of his limbs through the still strong chill of
the darkness from shore to shore.