Still morns to stiller evenings creep, And the ruins, lapsed again Sow themselves with seed and grain, Here fresh funeral tears were shed; W. ALLINGHAM. THE BAY OF NAPLES. THE sun is warm, the sky is clear, The waves are dancing fast and bright, The winds, the birds, the ocean floods, The City's voice itself is soft, like Solitude's. I see the Deep's untrampled floor With green and purple sea-weeds strown; I see the waves upon the shore, Like light dissolved in star-showers, thrown; I sit upon the sands alone, The lightning of the noon-tide ocean Is flashing round me, and a tone Arises from its measured motion, How sweet! did any heart now share in Alas! I have nor hope nor health, The sage my emotion. And walked with inward glory crowned Nor fame, nor power, nor love, nor leisure. Others I see whom these surround Smiling they live, and call life pleasure; To me that cup has been dealt in another measure. Yet now despair itself is mild, Even as the winds and waters are; I could lie down like a tired child, the life of care And weep away My cheek grow cold, and hear the sea Some might lament that I were cold, Which my lost heart, too soon grown old, They might lament for I am one Whom men love not,—and yet regret, Unlike this day, which, when the sun Shall on its stainless glory set, Will linger, though enjoyed, like joy in memory yet. SHELLEY. FISHER'S SONG. Up and down, all day long, On the restless sea we float, Up and down, all day long, Far from care, far from pain, Far from care, far from pain, Far from thoughts of greedy gain. From the German. SONG. RUSHES lean over the water, And thou, the blue Ocean's daughter, Clouds sail over the ocean, White feet on the edge of the billow Like tangles of sea-weed streaming Thy fair hair fringes thy dreaming, O sleeping Lido girl! G. W. CURTIS. THE CORAL GROVE. DEEP in the wave is a coral grove, Their boughs, where the tides and billows flow; For the winds and the waves are absent there, There, with its waving blade of green, The sea-flag streams through the silent water, There, with a light and easy motion, The fan-coral sweeps through the clear deep sea; |