THE VISION BY THE SEA.
“A thing of beauty is a joy forever.”
I.
A haunting face! with strange, ethereal eyes,
Deep as unfathomed gulfs of tranquil skies
When o'er their brightness a vague mist is drawn,
Breathed from the half-veiled lips of melting dawn;
A mouth whose passionate love and sweetness seem
But just released from kisses in a dream;
A brow like Psyche's, pensive, broad, and low
And white as winter's whitest wreath of snow;
While round that gracious forehead, calmly fair,
Ripples an April rain of golden hair.
II.
For some rapt moments, on the ocean strand,
Unconscious, beautiful, I saw her stand,
As tremulous wave on wave, with freightage sweet
Of murmured music, fawned about her feet,
Then died in one divine, harmonious sigh;
The breeze bewitched, could only falter nigh,
And in shy delicate wafts of homage play
With her rare tresses; like inearnate May,
She seemed the earth, the tides, the heaven, to bless:
For once I gazed on Beauty's perfectness.
III.
I gazed for some rapt moments, but no more;
Then lowered mine eyes and slowly left the shore
Made marvellous by that vision of delight;
Yet evermore its beauty, day and night,
Standing between the blue sky and the sea,
Shines like a star of immortality
Through all my being; it becomes a part
Of the deep life that quickens soul and heart
To sense of things ideal and supreme—
A palpable bliss, yet wedded to a dream.
