OH, silent glory of the summer day! How, then, we watched with glad and indolent eyes The white-sailed ships dream on their shining way, Till, fading, they were mingled with the skies. Have we not watched her, too, on nights that steep The soul in peace of moonlight, softly move As a most passionate maiden, who in sleep Laughs low, and tosses in a dream of love? And when the heat broke up, and in its place, Came the strong, shouting days and nights, that run, All white with stars, across the labouring ways Of billows warm with storm, instead of sun, In gray and desolate twilights, when no feet Save ours might dare the shore, did we not come Through winds that all in vain against us beat Until we had the warm sweet-smelling foam Full in our faces, and the frantic wind Shrieked round us, and our cheeks grew numb, then warm, Until we felt our souls, no more confined, Mix with the waves, and strain against the storm? Oh! the immense, illimitable delight It is, to stand by some tempestuous bay, What time the great sea waxes warm and white And beats and blinds the following wind with spray! | Discover our Poem Explanations and Poet Analyses!Other Poems of Interest...PARADISI GLORIA by THOMAS WILLIAM PARSONS NORTHERN FARMER, NEW STYLE by ALFRED TENNYSON TO THE QUEEN by ALFRED TENNYSON THE LAST RAFT by JOSEPH V. ADAMS THE FIRST AIR-RAID WARNING by EVELYN D. BANGAY THE WANDERER: 1. IN ITALY: WARNINGS by EDWARD ROBERT BULWER-LYTTON |