102
SEA DREAMS.
‘So sweet, I lay,’ said he,
‘And mused upon it, drifting up the stream
In fancy, till I slept again, and pieced
The broken vision; for I dream’d that still
The motion of the great deep bore me on,
And that the woman walk’d upon the brink:
I wonder’d at her strength, and ask’d her of it:
“It came,” she said, “by working in the mines:”
O then to ask her of my shares, I thought;
And ask’d; but not a word; she shook her head.
And then the motion of the current ceased,
And there was rolling thunder; and we reach’d
A mountain, like a wall of burs and thorns;
But she with her strong feet up the steep hill
Trod out a path: I follow’d; and at top
She pointed seaward: there a fleet of glass,
That seem’d a fleet of jewels under me,
Sailing along before a gloomy cloud
That not one moment ceased to thunder, past
In sunshine: right across its track there lay,
‘And mused upon it, drifting up the stream
In fancy, till I slept again, and pieced
The broken vision; for I dream’d that still
The motion of the great deep bore me on,
And that the woman walk’d upon the brink:
I wonder’d at her strength, and ask’d her of it:
“It came,” she said, “by working in the mines:”
O then to ask her of my shares, I thought;
And ask’d; but not a word; she shook her head.
And then the motion of the current ceased,
And there was rolling thunder; and we reach’d
A mountain, like a wall of burs and thorns;
But she with her strong feet up the steep hill
Trod out a path: I follow’d; and at top
She pointed seaward: there a fleet of glass,
That seem’d a fleet of jewels under me,
Sailing along before a gloomy cloud
That not one moment ceased to thunder, past
In sunshine: right across its track there lay,
