FROM noon and afternoon rich blue has bled Into a sea now dark as the sky is pale; Down through the cliffs in heat-hushed haste they trail. Vesture, like flimsy petals, quickly shed, Each naked girl is soon a bobbing head. Breeze ruffles, lo! the bay is strewn with sail, And conscious of the shoreward-tacking male, They stumble forth; the quietude has fled. While towels cling, Diana climbs the east; Their bevy turns half-clad to mutely stare; The fleet afar is heading for the moon! Though its approach had to young hearts been boon, The disappointment more profoundly pleased; Ocean and solitude had lured them there. | Discover our Poem Explanations and Poet Analyses!Other Poems of Interest...VIGNETTES OVERSEAS: 6. RUINS OF PAESTUM by SARA TEASDALE BATTLE OF THE BALTIC by THOMAS CAMPBELL ON THE DEATH OF MR. CRASHAW by ABRAHAM COWLEY THE SEEDLING by PAUL LAURENCE DUNBAR LETTY'S GLOBE by CHARLES TENNYSON TURNER HYMN OF FREEDDOM by MICHAEL JOSEPH BARRY |