 | Songs of the sea, with other poems |  |
24
II.
THE AWAKENING.
How changed the scene! Our parting gaze, last night,Was on the three-hilled city's swelling dome,—
The dome o'erlooking from its stately height
Full many a sacred spire and happy home.
Rose over all, clouding the azure air,
A canopy of smoke, swart Labor's sign;
While like a forest Winter has stripped bare,
Bristled the masts along the water's line.
But now the unbroken ocean and the sky
Seem to enclose us in a crystal sphere;
A new creation fills the straining eye;
No bark save ours—no human trace is here!
But, in the brightening east, a crimson haze
Floats up before the sun, his incense fresh of praise.
| Songs of the sea, with other poems | |