Our happy bathers, - pardon my romance! I thought of gladness only, for the tide Ran sparkling to the land in merry dance; But, oh! what sorrows haunt our sweet seaside! Man, child, and woman mourn the wide world o'er; Yon maiden's snowy foot, that meets the wave, Has just come faltering from her lover's grave, Just pass'd that orphan-group upon the shore; The yacht glides gaily on, but as it nears The beach, I see a night-black dress on board; The lonely widow dreams of those three years Of summer-voyaging with her lost lord: Too oft, when human figures fill the scene, We count from woe to woe, with no glad hearts between! | Discover our Poem Explanations and Poet Analyses!Other Poems of Interest...THE PAST by RALPH WALDO EMERSON LAMENT by EDNA ST. VINCENT MILLAY SONNET: 14. ON THE RELIGIOUS MEMORY OF CATHERINE THOMASON by JOHN MILTON INCOGNITA IN THE TEMPLE OF THESEUS by SEYMOUR GREEN WHEELER BENJAMIN THE DEVIL'S DICTIONARY, SELECTION by AMBROSE BIERCE MAXIMS FOR THE OLD HOUSE: THE BEST ROOM by ANNA HEMPSTEAD BRANCH |