Poetry Explorer- Classic Contemporary Poetry, SPUMA DAL MARE (ON THE LATIN COAST), by WILLIAM SHARP


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Classic and Contemporary Poetry

SPUMA DAL MARE (ON THE LATIN COAST), by                     Poet's Biography
First Line: Flower o' the wave
Last Line: The many-coloured.
Alternate Author Name(s): Macleod, Fiona
Subject(s): Birds; Italy; Peacocks; Sea; Italians; Ocean


Flower o' the wave,
White foam of the waters,
The many-coloured:
Here blue as a hare-bell,
Here pale as the turquoise;
Here green as the grasses
Of mountain hollows,
Here lucent as jade when wet in the sunshine,
Here paler than apples ere ruddied by autumn.
Depths o' the purple!
Amethyst yonder,
Yonder as ling on the hills of October,
With shadows as deep,
Where islets of sea-wrack
Wave in the shallows,
As the sheen of the feathers
On the blue-green breast
Of the bird of the Orient,
The splendid peacock.
Foam o' the waves,
White crests ashine
With a dazzle of sunlight!
Here the low breakers are rolling through shallows,
Yellow and muddied, the hue of the topaz
Ere cut from the boulder;
Save when the sunlight swims through them slantwise,
When inward they roll
Long billows of amber,
Crowned with pale yellow
And grey-green spume.
Here wan grey their slopes
Where the broken lights reach them,
Dull grey of pearl, and dappled, and darkling,
As when 'mid the high
Northward drift of the clouds;
Scirocco bloweth
With soft fanning breath.

Foam o' the waves,
Blown blossoms of ocean,
White flowers of the waters,
The many-coloured.





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