An Evening Song at Sea

SWEET night, whence sweeter calm doth flow,

Sweet solitude of sea and sky:

Made sweeter far, because I know

That thou with all sweet things must die;—

For beauty fades from out the eye,

And love itself will cease to be;

As summer winds from tropic shores,

Die on the smooth unruffled sea.

Now, Hesperus, evening star of love

Flings o’er the waves a lane of light;

And constellations from above

Gleam out like di’mond on the sight:

And phosphor, glinting silver-white

From out the deep and dimpled sea,

Looks like another realm of stars

In Heaven’s inverted canopy.

Sweet double star of love and rest,

That usherest in the hour of sleep;

I watch in grief thy waning crest

Go glimmering down the dusky deep.

While other stars their vespers keep,

My longing thoughts revert to thee,

And follow up thy trail of light

To other heavens beyond the sea.