 | Songs of the sea, with other poems |  |
32
X.
TROPICAL NIGHT.
But O! the night—the cool, luxurious night,Which closes round us when the day grows dim,
And the sun sinks from his meridian height
Behind the ocean's occidental rim!
Clouds in thin streaks of purple, green and red,
Lattice his dying glory, and absorb—
Hung o'er his couch—the rallying lustre shed,
Like love's last tender glances, from his orb.
And now the moon, her lids unclosing, deigns
To smile serenely on the charméd sea,
That shines as if inlaid with lightning-chains,
From which it faintly struggled to be free.
Swan-like, with motion unperceived, we glide,
Touched by the downy breeze, and favored by the tide.
| Songs of the sea, with other poems | |