 | Marah |  |
143
A LOST CHANCE
1
The glimpses of the moon with fitful lights,That flash'd and fled between swift cloud-drifts sweeping,
Strew'd all the dark sea. And the Water Sprites
Merrily in those moony gleams were leaping.
2
I saw them, and amongst them saw againThe little Mermaid that, long years ago,
Taught me sea-magic, many a mystic strain
Of Siren song, and all the spells I know.
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3
All that she taught me, in the unmagicalMonotonously wakeful world wherein,
Toiling and moiling, I have wasted all
My after-years in sadness that was sin,
4
I had forgotten, and her too. But sheWas looking just as when I saw her last,
Not here, but by that other happier sea
Where we were playmates in the painless past.
5
And when I saw and recognised her there,The old song, all at once, and the old spell
Came back to me. Along the moonlit air
She sigh'd and beckon'd. I remember'd well
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6
The word I was to utter when we met,And half gave voice to it. But suddenly
A cloud closed up the moon, and black as jet
Became the solid darkness of the sky.
7
The vision vanish'd. I no longer feltSure of the word. The night was full of doubt
And fear. And I was conscious that there dwelt
In its black bosom secrets not made out
8
By any magic I had learn'd of old.So, passive, in suspense I stood, nor stirr'd,
While o'er my soul the darkness closed its hold
As a hand closes on a frighten'd bird.
| Marah | |