图书图片
PDF
ePub

By some acknowledgment of thanks and praise,
Soft in its temper as those vesper lays

Sung to the Virgin, while accordant oars
Urge the slow bark along Calabrian shores;
A sea-born service, through the mountains felt,
Till into one loved vision all things melt:

Or like those hymns that soothe with graver sound
The gulfy coast of Norway iron-bound;
And from the wide and open Baltic rise
With punctual care, Lutherian harmonies.
Hush, not a voice is here! but why repine
Now when the star of eve comes forth to shine,
On British waters with that look benign?
Ye mariners, that plough your onward way
Or in the haven rest, or sheltering bay,
May silent thanks at least to God be given,

With a full heart; 'our thoughts are heard in Heaven!'

WORDSWORTH.

THE SEA-IN CALM.

Look what immortal floods the sunset pours
Upon us Mark! how still (as though in dreams
Bound) the once wild and terrible ocean seems!
How silent are the winds! no billow roars;
But all is tranquil as Elysian shores.

The silver margin which aye runneth round
The moon-enchanted sea, hath here no sound:
Even echo speaks not on these radiant moors!

What! is the Giant of the ocean dead,

Whose strength was all unmatched beneath the sun?
No: he reposes! Now his toils are done,
More quiet than the babbling brooks is he.
So mightiest powers by deepest calms are fed,
And sleep, how oft, in things that gentlest be!
BARRY CORNWALL.

CAPE-COTTAGE AT SUNSET.

WE stood upon the ragged rocks,
When the long day was nearly done;
The waves had ceased their sullen shocks,
And lapped our feet with murmuring tone,
And o'er the bay in streaming locks
Blew the red tresses of the sun.

Along the West the golden bars
Still to a deeper glory grew;
Above our heads the faint, few stars

Looked out from the unfathomed blue:

And the far city's clamorous jars

Seemed melted in that evening hue.

O sunset sky! O purple tide!

O friends to friends that closer pressed!
Those glories have in darkness died,
And ye have left my longing breast.
I could not keep you by my side,
Nor fix that radiance in the West.

Upon those rocks the waves shall beat
With the same low and murmuring strain,
Across those waves, with glancing feet,
The sunset rays shall seek the main;
But when together shall we meet

Upon that far-off shore again?

W. B. GLAZIER.

A SEA-SIDE WALK.

WE walked beside the sea,

After a day which perished silently

Of its own glory,-like the Princess weird,

Who combating the Genius, scorched and seared,

[ocr errors]

Uttered with burning breath, Ho, victory!'

And sank adown, an heap of ashes pale.

So runs the Arab tale.

The sky above us showed
An universal and unmoving cloud,

On which the cliffs permitted us to see

Only the outlines of their majesty,

As master-minds, when gazed at by the crowd:

And shining with a gloom, the water gray

Swang in its morn-taught way.

[ocr errors]

Nor moon nor stars were out,

They did not dare to tread so soon about,
Though trembling in the footsteps of the sun.
The light was neither night's nor day's, but one
Which, lifelike, had a beauty in its doubt;
And Silence's impassioned breathings round
Seemed wandering into sound.

O solemn-beating heart

Of Nature! I have knowledge that thou art
Bound unto man's by cords he cannot sever,
And what time they are slackened by him ever,
So to attest his own supernal part,

Still runneth thy vibration, fast and strong,
The slackened cord along.

For though we never spoke

Of the gray water and the shaded rock, –

-

Dark wave and stone, unconsciously, were fused
Into the plaintive speaking that we used
Of absent friends and memories unforsook;
And, had we seen each other's face, we had
Seen, haply, each was sad.

ELIZABETH BARRETT BROWNING.

10

« 上一页继续 »