 | Sonnets Round the Coast |  |
158
XII. TO AND FROM MULGRAVE CASTLE.
When, from the roll of breakers and the soundOf that great sea the murderer Maulac heard,
I seek the woods where once his name was feared,
And gain his fortress castle—but a mound
Of crumbling buttress, sentinelled around
With innocent dumb trees—my pulse is stirred
By the least flutter of a startled bird,
So well has deathless awe possessed the ground.
But, Ocean, haply wand'ring back to thee,
By either deep-embosomed woody stream,
To cottage roofs and gardens gay with flowers,
Fierce Maulac's deed would vanish like a dream,
But for thy presence, double-hearted sea,
Hiding beneath thy cloak such cruel powers.
| Sonnets Round the Coast | |