O Love, now the herded billows over the holy plain Of the trampled sea move thunderously, and cast Their wrath on the dark shore -- let us set out again, Let us make seaward, and be gone at last. Into the choiring, clashing, wild waste of waters strown Around us, -- forward -- forward --, and leave behind The little frets and the fevers, just we two alone, Heart-free, as once in days long out of mind! Forget the city and all its troubles, leave forever Our dusty ways! The Eternal 'round us rolled Shall wash us white of the little sins and fears that sever, Lave us, and leave us lovers as of old -- Lovers as once in golden days gone by, till sorrow Fall from us like a robe, the martyrdom Of life on the daily rack: there shall be no Tomorrow, Nor Yesterday, but heaven and ocean. --Sweetheart, come And on the swelling pillow of the Unbounded lean Your cheek, all fiery now -- O let us press Forward, the changeful furrows of the flashing foam between, Our glowing bodies into the Loveliness! The waves shatter, the billows break us, the sullen wrath Of the surf beats down our foreheads." Line on line Rises the majesty of the sea to Oppose our path With tingling bodies through the stinging brine; But in our jubilant breasts the embattled life at bay Exults fiercely for joy, the waves cry out And shout in answering joy, the salt and savage spray Showers our shoulders in the exuberant bout, Where we press forward, laughing for lusty love, and the hollows Receive us and rise, the foam of the breaker's crest Unfolds like a flower and dies of its kiss, and subsides, and follows, Laughing and loving, where our limbs have pressed: Till in the lustrous shadow of the last wave before us We bow, and from the rolling billow's might Lift glimmering eyelids up, while hearts and lips in chorus Mingle with winds and waters their delight. Far -- far -- where the sea-bird sinks weary wings at last Before the wrath of the wings of the wind, the sea Makes moan, the inconsolable, pale waters are aghast, And shudder with dread of their own immensity. They murmur with one another, the voice of their vast prayer Sinks down in supplication, and the sleep Of the Supreme is stirred to whispers everywhere -- The dark and divine sorrows of the Deep. Where the heads of the sea were holy and lifted in wrath divine Now broods the silence, heaven holds its breath, -- Where the feet of the winds made music far out to the lone sea-line, -- The rapture and awe and silence as of death! Hark -- how the lonely sea-bird screams above the surges And inland reaches! Now, far out, we roam The desert and dumb vast of the dread sea that urges Our fitful course far out beyond the foam, Toward the most pallid rim of cloudy noonday steering Steadily, while the fluent glooms and grave Lap us and lift, repulse, and pause--the wild and veering Will of the loving and reluctant wave. The sombre and immense breast of the huge sea Lifts in long lines of beauty, the supreme Bosom with its vast love rises resistlessly, And lapses in long lines into its dream. Lone to the last marge -- lone -- lone -- lone -- And void to where the huddled waters crowd The brim --along the floor of heaven's darkened throne Moves, like a ghost, the shadow of a cloud. Shadow and light pass over shifting, shine and shade Vanish and veer, upon the chilly rim Kindle like crowns the cloud-crests along the east arrayed And swords of flame, like swords of the seraphim. The floors of the sea catch fire, the eye of the world's light Dilates, and into a glory of glittering gold Break the pale greens and purples; the sun in heaven's height Unveils himself for all men to behold And all the world is a-riot, behind us and before, With fire and color -- the heavens roll back their gloom, From zone to zone, from the zenith to the everlasting floor, Reaches one resonant and radiant room -- Light! --Light! The astounded, far fields of ocean shine Sheer gold and shimmering amber: where we take The lips of the wave with laughter your eyes are turned to mine, Sweetheart, your eyes that burn for beauty's sake. They tremble with happy tears and little words unspoken Trouble your lips; dumbly, dumbly we know Something starry and strange, that the world's wheel has broken, Come back to us out of the long-ago. Put out your hand. O cleave the clasp of the close wave, turning Its fire to flowers! Put out your hand, and move Forward into the radiant far reaches 'round us burning, Darling, as once in the old days of love. Our hearts drink the wrath and the wonder, the breath of the boundless spaces Hallows our foreheads, the exceeding might Of moving waters around us is music, and on our faces The glory of God is shed, His holy light! | Discover our Poem Explanations and Poet Analyses!Other Poems of Interest...WHAT AILS THIS HEART O'MINE? by SUSANNA BLAMIRE DRAKE'S DRUM by HENRY JOHN NEWBOLT ON THE INDESTRUCTIBILITY OF READING MATTER by FRANKLIN PIERCE ADAMS PEARLS OF THE FAITH: 92. AL-ZARR by EDWIN ARNOLD MONCH AND JUNGFRAU by ANTON ALEXANDER VON AUERSPERG |