| |
| BY the blue waters—the restless ocean waters, | |
| Restless as they with their many-flashing surges, | |
| Lonely I wander, weeping for my lost one! | |
| |
| I pine for thee through all the joyless day— | |
| Through the long night I pine: the golden sun | 5 |
| Looks dim since thou hast left me, and the Spring | |
| Seems but to weep. Where art thou, my beloved? | |
| Night after night, in fond hope vigilant, | |
| By the old temple on the breezy cliff, | |
| These hands have heap’d the watch-fire, till it stream’d | 10 |
| Red o’er the shining columns—darkly red— | |
| Along the crested billows!—but in vain; | |
| Thy white sail comes not from the distant isles…. | |
| |
| Where art thou?—where?—had I but lingering prest | |
| On thy cold lips the last long kiss; but smooth’d | 15 |
| The parted ringlets of thy shining hair | |
| With love’s fond touch, my heart’s cry had been still’d | |
| Into a voiceless grief; I would have strew’d | |
| With all the pale flowers of the vernal woods— | |
| White violets, and the mournful hyacinth, | 20 |
| And frail anemone, thy marble brow, | |
| In slumber beautiful!—I would have heap’d | |
| Sweet boughs and precious odours on thy pyre, | |
| And with mine own shorn tresses hung thine urn, | |
| And many a garland of the pallid rose…. | 25 |
| |
| Come, in the dreamy shadow of the night, | |
| And speak to me!—E’en though thy voice be changed, | |
| My heart would know it still. Oh, speak to me, | |
| And say if yet, in some dim, far-off world, | |
| Which knows not how the festal sunshine burns— | 30 |
| O yet, in some pale mead of Asphodel, | |
| We two shall meet again! Oh, I would quit | |
| The day, rejoicingly—the rosy light— | |
| All the rich flowers and fountains musical, | |
| And sweet familiar melodies of earth, | 35 |
To dwell with thee below!…
Thou hear’st me not! | |
| The heavens are pitiless of human tears: | |
| The deep sea-darkness is about thy head; | |
| The white sail never will bring back the loved! | |
| |
| By the blue waters—the restless ocean waters, | 40 |
| Restless as they with their many-flashing surges, | |
| Lonely I wander, weeping for my lost one! | |
| |
