Page:Poems, now first collected, Stedman, 1897.djvu/165

From Wikisource
Jump to navigation Jump to search
This page has been proofread, but needs to be validated.

SARGASSO WEED

Out from the seething Stream
To the steadfast trade-wind's courses,
Over the bright vast swirl
Of a tide from evil free,—
Where the ship has a level beam,
And the storm has spent his forces,
And the sky is a hollow pearl
Curved over a sapphire sea.


Here it floats as of old,
Beaded with gold and amber,
Sea-frond buoyed with fruit,
Sere as the yellow oak,
Long since carven and scrolled,
Of some blue-ceiled Gothic chamber
Used to the viol and lute
And the ancient belfry's stroke.


Eddying far and still
In the drift that never ceases,

145