The night was calm o’er the wide sea
Whereon we were afloat.
The Specter-Island, the lovely,
Lay dim in the moon’s mild glance;
There sounded sweetest music,
There waved the shadowy dance.
It sounded sweeter and sweeter,
It waved there to and fro;
But we slid past forlornly
Upon the great sea-flow.
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I
Thalatta! Thalatta!I hail thee, O Sea, thou Ancient of Days!I hail thee, O Sea, ten thousand timesWith jubilant heart,Of yore as once hailed theeThose Grecian hearts ten thousand,Homestead-desiring, calamity-mastering,World-renowned bold Grecian hearts.The billows were heaving,Were heaving and roaring,The sun shed briskly from heavenHis quivering rosy sparklets,In sudden scare the tribes of sea-birdsRose on the wing,…
My golden-haired beauty,
In the Tuileries Gardens,Under the chestnut trees.Every day she’s out walkingWith two ugly old ladies –Are they aunts? Or dragons,Disguised in women’s clothing?Could no one give me a clue then,Of who she was? I asked my friends,All of them, but all in vain,I was nearly ill with passion.Daunted by the moustachesOf her elderly companions,And daunted…
The years they come and go,
Yet never the love doth soWhich here in my heart I have.Could I see thee but once, one day,And sink down so on my knee,And die in thy sight while I say,‘Lady, I love but thee!’
Where shall I, of wandering weary,
Under drooping southern palm-trees?Under limes the Rhine sweeps past?Will it be in deserts lonely,Dug by unfamiliar hands?Shall I slumber where the oceanCrawls along the yellow sands?It matters not! Around me everThere as here God’s heaven lies,And by night, as death-lamps o’er me,Lo, His stars sweep through the skies!
In The Underworld
‘O to be a bachelor!’Pluto now forever sighs.‘In my marriage miseries,I perceive, without a wifeHell was not a hell before.‘O to be a bachelor!Since my Proserpine is mine,Daily for my grave I pine,When she raileth I can hearBarking Cerberus no more.‘My poor heart needs rest and ease,In the realm of shades I cry,-No lost soul…
We sat by the fisher’s cottage,
We saw the mists of eveningCome riding and rolling by :The lights in the lighthouse windowBrighter and brighter grew,And on the dim horizonA ship still hung in view.We spake of storm and shipwreck,Of the seaman’s anxious life ;How he floats ‘twixt sky and water,‘Twixt joy and sorrow’s strife :We spoke of coasts far distant,We spoke…