University of Virginia Library


106

SONNET XX
MY ISLAND

“O one sweet island in my soul's waste sea!” —Philip Bourke Marston.

Thou art my island in some Southern sea!
Brood over me with long green tender hair
And kiss me with strange blossoms, and with air
Of speechless and undreamed-of purity.
O island, give thy magic calm to me:
Embrace me with thy night, when thou dost wear
The jewels of all the skies,—and with thy fair
Blue lustrous morning: clasp me laughingly.
Within thine island-arms no death abides,
Nor sin, nor any horror. Lift me and save
With thine unsearchable and viewless bloom.
Sing to me with thy coral-kissing tides:
Flow round my body with thine amorous wave:
And, when sweet life is over, be my tomb!