 | Poems by Henry Septimus Sutton |  |
70
A DREAM OF THE SEA FOAM.
I
We stood, both silent, by the sounding sea.The waves, like lips about to speak, did rise,
Yet shrewdly kept the secret; and the wise
Sky o'er us told not our hearts' destiny.
Ah, had the future then by me and thee
Been but divined, with what endear'd surprise
Should we have gazed into each other's eyes
And loved, even for the love that was to be!
The very flints thou troddest would have been
Dear for the time's sake when more dear they'd grow
For thy sake,—when thy heart on mine would lean
As then thine arm on mine did.—Nay, not so,
Dearest, not so! Our arms were link'd to sever;
But when our hearts united, 'twas for ever.
71
II
Then, arm on arm; now, heart in heart; ah whyNot arm on arm now, too? Why should the dear
So seldom be the near? Why are the near,
Alas, not always dear? Earth doth supply
Too many who the human form degrade.
And yet love blesses all, if love is true;
And, since we love each other, I and you
Doubtless are lending them some hidden aid.
Yet 'tis a grief that to these plenteous men,—
Too plenteous—I may go, and not to thee;
So now I mourn for what I prized not then,
And own that now most blessëd seems to me
That time, which seem'd not so at that time, when
We stood, both silent, by the sounding sea.
| Poems by Henry Septimus Sutton | |