In Cornwall and Across the Sea With Poems Written in Devonshire. By Douglas B. W. Sladen |
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THE LAND'S END. |
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 | In Cornwall and Across the Sea |  |
THE LAND'S END.
I.
The Land's End is it? with calm beryl seaStretching before me for a score of miles
To the low, distant, broken rim of isles?
The Land's End pictured in my reverie
Had been a wall of granite on the lee
Of waves, that mimicked mountains and defiles,
And flung themselves upon the giant piles
Of boulders, swooping irresistibly,
Like eagles driving through a wild swan's back
Their greedy talons deep. Was Lyonnesse
Submerged beneath this sleeping, gleaming track?
Here was it one alone escaped the stress
Of wind and wave, when o'er Sir Tristram's realm
The angry ocean rushed to overwhelm?
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II.
But stay! Where'er an islet rock appears,Where the “Armed Knight” stands sentry o'er the strait,
And fabled “Irish lady” met her fate,
Where the “Long Ships” their warning light uprear,
And the dark “Brisons” rise, cliff-castled sheer,
A prison for a giant, springs a spate
Of frosted, seething foam beneath the weight
Of every pounding wave. It leaps up clear,
(Like a white ostrich feather shot in air,
Or like a sunny fountain in the court
Of palace old) falls, ripples everywhere
Hissing, then drains straight back with respite short,
Islanding each projecting jag of rock,
To break or merge in the next billow's shock.
| In Cornwall and Across the Sea | |