| |
| NIGHT waned and wasted, and the fading stars | |
| Died out like lamps that long survived a feast, | |
| And the moon, pale with watching, sank to rest | |
| Behind the cloud-piled ramparts of the main. | |
| Young, blooming Morn, crowned with her bridal wreath, | 5 |
| Bent o’er her mirror clear, the faithful sea; | |
| And gazing on her loveliness therein, | |
| Blushed to the brows, till every imaged charm | |
| Flung roses on the bosom of the wave, | |
| Then, glancing heavenward, both, they blushed again, | 10 |
| As sprang the Sun to claim his radiant bride; | |
| And sea and sky seemed but one rose of morn, | |
| Which thenceforth grew in glory, and the world | |
| Shot back her lesser light upon the day, | |
| While night sped on to seek the sombre shades | 15 |
| That sleep in silent caves beyond the sea. | |
| The day grew calmer, hotter, and our barque | |
| Lay like a sleeping swan upon a lake, | |
| And such soft airs as blew from off the land | |
| Brought with them fragrant odours, and we felt | 20 |
| That orange groves lay blooming ’neath the sun | |
| Which blazed so fiercely overhead at sea. | |
| We heard (with Fancy’s ear) a distant bell; | |
| And thro’ the haze that simmered on the Main | |
| Pictured a purple shore—a convent tow’r | 25 |
| And snowy cots, that from the dark hill-side | |
| Peeped forth ’tween plantain-patches at the sky, | |
| Or smiled through groves of cocos on the sea. | |
| Meanwhile our ship slid on, with breathing sails | |
| Fraught with the melody of murmured song | 30 |
| Such as the zephyr chanted to the morn, | |
| And showers of diamonds flashed before the prow | |
| While sternwards whirled unstrung—pale beads of foam, | |
| Pearls from the loosen’d chaplet of the sea. | |
| ’Mid these the flame-bright Nautilus, that seemed | 35 |
| Itself a flow’ret cast upon the stream, | |
| Spread out its crimson sail and drifted on. | |
| Beyond arose a cloud (as ’twere) of birds, | |
| That leapt from out the wave to meet the sun, | |
| Flew a short circuit, till their wings grew dry, | 40 |
| And seaward fell in showers of silver rain. | |
| ’Mid these careered the dolphin-squadrons swift, | |
| With mail of changeful hue, and Iris tints; | |
| And floating slowly on, a sea-flow’r passed, | |
| A living creature (none the less a flow’r) | 45 |
| That lives its life in love, and dies for joy, | |
| Unmissed ’mid myriads in the sapphire sea. | |
| |
