Betwixt Two Seas :: :: University of Virginia Library

From this white house that faces the Black Sea
Whereof the windows look like waiting eyes
Expectant of the changes that may be,
What human eyes will look, as daylight dies?
Daylight of days that will not dawn for me
In this white house that faces the Black Sea!

On summer mornings, who, at break of day,
Will peep between the painted shutter-slide
And watch the clumsy dolphins as they play
And snort and tumble in the glittering tide?
Whose footsteps will ascend the rocky way
Which leads to where my own were wont to stray?

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Then, as to-day, along the ocean line
The great white ships will pass upon their way,
—The lesser craft, aglint with sun and shine,
Will speck the strait, to-morrow, as to-day,
When, gazing thus, with your dear hand in mine,
I watch the sea-birds dip into the brine;

And this white house that faces the Black Sea
Will still stand on, should storm or earthquake spare,
And all will be as it was wont to be
Save that the stranger will inhabit there
Till dimming years may make it seem to me
A white dream-house facing a phantom sea!

Therapia, 1897.