hymn to the sea.
31
A joy to every heart, a day, an hour
To come, outweighing all these silent years!
Afar thou veil'st thy kingliness in mist,
And stretchest in the heaven's most deep embrace,
Like the great Future, waste and gray,
Dissolving day to yesterday—
But what fair shores thou lapp'st in azure peace!—
What isles of joyous palms with tropic starlight kissed!
To come, outweighing all these silent years!
Afar thou veil'st thy kingliness in mist,
And stretchest in the heaven's most deep embrace,
Like the great Future, waste and gray,
Dissolving day to yesterday—
But what fair shores thou lapp'st in azure peace!—
What isles of joyous palms with tropic starlight kissed!
I am borne outward by this fragrant breeze,
That seems to press its warm lips to the sand,
And then away, beyond the singing land,
To that hoar silence of the lone mid seas,
Where thou, in unrelated strength, a bare
Vast heart, throbbest beneath the eternal eye:—
Life soars like an enfranchised flame;
The needy doubt, the hope, that came
Before the laggard dawn to wake me, fly,
And dim Eternity flows in like silent air.
That seems to press its warm lips to the sand,
And then away, beyond the singing land,
To that hoar silence of the lone mid seas,
Where thou, in unrelated strength, a bare
Vast heart, throbbest beneath the eternal eye:—
Life soars like an enfranchised flame;
The needy doubt, the hope, that came
Before the laggard dawn to wake me, fly,
And dim Eternity flows in like silent air.
