ALL day to watch the blue wave curl and break, All night to hear it plunging on the shore-- In this sea-dream such draughts of life I take, I cannot ask for more. Behind me lie the idle life and vain, The task unfinished, and the weary hours; That long wave softly bears me back to Spain And the Alhambra's towers! Once more I halt in Andalusian pass, To list the mule-bells jingling on the height; Below, against the dull esparto grass, The almonds glimmer white. Huge gateways, wrinkled, with rich grays and browns, Invite my fancy, and I wander through The gable-shadowed, zigzag streets of towns The world's first sailors knew. Or, if I will, from out this thin sea-haze Low-lying cliffs of lovely Calais rise; Or yonder, with the pomp of olden days, Venice salutes my eyes. Or some gaunt castle lures me up its stair; I see, far off, the red-tiled hamlets shine, And catch, through slits of windows here and there, Blue glimpses of the Rhine. Again I pass Norwegian fjord and fell, And through bleak wastes to where the sunset's fires Light up the white-walled Russian citadel, The Kremlin's domes and spires! And now I linger in green English lanes, By garden-plots of rose and heliotrope; And now I face the sudden pelting rains On some lone Alpine slope. Now at Tangier, among the packed bazars, I saunter, and the merchants at the doors Smile, and entice me here are jewels like stars, And curved knives of the Moors; Cloths of Damascus, strings of amber dates; What would Howadji ... silver, gold, or stone? Prone on the sun-scorched plain outside the gates The camels make their moan. All this is mine, as I lie dreaming here, High on the windy terrace, day by day; And mine the children's laughter, sweet and clear, Ringing across the bay. For me the clouds; the ships sail by for me; For me the petulant sea-gull takes its flight; And mine the tender moonrise on the sea, And hollow caves of night. | Discover our Poem Explanations and Poet Analyses!Other Poems of Interest...AFTER WRITING A POEM by DAVID IGNATOW A COMPARISON [ADDRESSED] TO A YOUNG LADY by WILLIAM COWPER INDIFFERENCE by EDNA ST. VINCENT MILLAY EMBLEMS OF LOVE: 16. CUPID HIMSELF STUNG by PHILIP AYRES |