Screamed the far sea-mew. On the mirroring sands Bell-shrill the oyster-catchers. Burned the sky. Couching my cheeks upon my sun-scorched hands, Down from bare rock I gazed. The sea swung by Dazzling dark blue and verdurous, quiet with snow, Empty with loveliness, with music a-roar, Her billowing summits heaving noon-aglow -- Crashed the Atlantic on the cliff-ringed shore. Drowsed by the tumult of that moving deep, Sense into outer silence fainted, fled; And rising softly, from the fields of sleep, Stole to my eyes a lover from the dead; Crying an incantation -- learned, Where? When?. . . White swirled the foam, a fount, a blinding gleam Of ice-cold breast, cruel eyes, wild mouth -- and then A still dirge echoing on from dream to dream. | Discover our Poem Explanations and Poet Analyses!Other Poems of Interest...THE POET'S SONG FOR HIS WIFE by BRYAN WALLER PROCTER THE WATERFALL by HENRY VAUGHAN GOOD-BYE MY FANCY! by WALT WHITMAN CURE FOR AFFLICTIONS by ARCHILOCHUS EMBLEMS OF LOVE: 35. PERSEVERE by PHILIP AYRES |