NEREIA
Open’d her eyes and half-beheld the sea,
Laid, blue and darkling, ’neath the pale blue sky
Whereon were spread dawn’s rosy ruffled wings;
Till, last, her idle gaze fell on the line
Sundering sky and ocean, What was that
Which marr’d the perfect globing of the curve
Hard by the purple rock? Her dreamy mind
Sprang into vigilant life. She saw the fleck
How it grew greater, greater,—nay, became
No longer one, but manifold, each part
Instantly limn’d more clear, more dark, upon
The brightening sky—till suddenly there shot
Out of the midst a fairy white-wing’d bird,
That flew and floated o’er the gentle sea
Right towards the palace-stairway; but the rest
Went sweeping onwards, up the wide-mouth’d bay;
And then Nereia saw that they were ships,
Tall and full-sail’d, that, moving stately on,
Sought room to ride within the harbour, where
Was water deep eno’ for such great keels.
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