Some nobler voyager, that has to woo CAMPBELL. LINES WRITTEN AT SORRENTO. THE wild waves madly dash and roar, Up through the cavernous rocks amain, With short, hoarse growl, they plunge and leap, Like an armed host, again and again, Great pulses of the ocean heart, Ever, in still increasing force, I sit alone on the glowing sand, The wondrous lore that ye would teach. The sea-weed and the shells are wise, And versed in your broad Sanscrit tongue; The rocks need not our ears and eyes To comprehend the under-song. The ocean and the shore are one ; The rocks and trees that hang above, The birds and insects in the sun Are linked in one strong tie of love. Would that I might with freedom be To drink with you perpetual youth! C. P. CRANCH. HAMPTON BEACH. THE sunlight glitters keen and bright, Lies stretching to my dazzled sight Beyond the dark pine bluffs and wastes of sandy grey. The tremulous shadow of the sea! Of silvery light, rock, hill, and tree, Still as a picture, clear and free, With varying outline mark the coast for miles around. On-on we tread with loose-flung rein Through dark-green fields and blossoming grain, And bends above our heads the flowering locust spray. Ha! like a kind hand on my brow Cooling its dull and feverish glow, While through my being seems to flow The breath of a new life the healing of the seas! Now rest we, where this grassy mound In the great waters, which have bound His granite ankles greenly round With long and tangled moss, and weeds with cool spray wet. Good-bye to Pain and Care! I take Here where these sunny waters break, I draw a freer breath I seem Like all I see — Waves in the sun-the white-winged gleam Of sea-birds in the slanting beam And far-off sails which flit before the south wind free. So when Time's veil shall fall asunder, No fearful change, nor sudden wonder, But with the upward rise, and with the vastness grow. And all we shrink from now may seem Familiar as our childhood's stream, Or pleasant memory of a dream The loved and cherished Past upon the new life stealing Serene and mild the untried light And, as in Summer's northern light The evening and the dawn unite, The sunset hues of Time blend with the soul's new morning. I sit alone in foam and spray Wave after wave Breaks on the rocks which, stern and grey, Beneath like fallen Titans lay, Or murmurs hoarse and strong through mossy cleft and cave. What heed I of the dusty land I see the mighty deep expand From its white line of glimmering sand To where the blue of heaven on bluer waves shuts down! In listless quietude of mind, I yield to all The change of cloud and wave and wind, I wander with the waves, and with them rise and fall. But look, thou dreamer! — wave and shore The night-wind warns me back once more Bends like an arch of fire the glowing sunset sky! |