Page:Poems Cook.djvu/356

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CURLS AND COUPLETS.
It graspeth the column with crushing might,
It filleth the porch with purple light,
It wrappeth itself in the silken fold;
It darteth about the woven gold;
It cracketh the dome-span of marble and oak,
And rushes on high with its crest of smoke:
It painteth the land with a ghastly dye,
It flingeth a blood-stain over the sky.
Oh a terrible thing, in the still dark hour,
Is the Fire Curl wielding its ruthless power.




The salt wave Curls as it hurrieth fast,
At the flood of the tide, in the face of the blast;
It rears and it rolls in bold, bright scrolls,
As the artist will of a God controls;
It beateth and bindeth the lighthouse-top;
It formeth a perch where the loud gulls drop.
Over the coral leaf, leaping and light,
It dances in robes of bridal white;
As fair teeth show in a red-lipp'd smile,
Over the wrecking breast of guile;
And the Water Curl spreadeth its fringe on the land;
A banner of might in a mightier hand.




There's a glossy Curl that groweth,
In fullest, greenest length;
When the summer sunbeam gloweth
In straight, unshadow'd strength.
Far in other climes it springeth,
To our own dear walls it clingeth;
O'er the lowly porch-seat creeping,
Through the window-lattice peeping;
In uncultured beauty trailing,
O'er the garden's old gray paling.

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