Playmates, old playmates, hear my invocation! Ceaselessly mingle. When shall I feel your breath upon my forehead ? When shall I hear you in the elm-trees' branches? When shall we wrestle in the briny surges, Friends of my boyhood? Epes Sargent. "THE EAGER SUN COMES GLADLY FROM THE THE SEA." HE eager sun comes gladly from the sea; He rose from unknown worlds of light below The saddened sun with lingering step and slow THE VOICE OF THE SEA. 105 J CHRYSAOR. UST above yon sandy bar, As the day grows fainter and dimmer, Lonely and lovely, a single star Lights the air with a dusky glimmer. Into the ocean faint and far Falls the trail of its golden splendor, Chrysaor rising out of the sea, Showed thus glorious and thus emulous, Leaving the arms of Callirrhoe, Forever tender, soft, and tremulous. Thus o'er the ocean faint and far Trailed the gleam of his falchion brightly; Is it a God, or is it a star That, entranced, I gaze on nightly ! H. W. Longfellow. THE VOICE OF THE SEA. IN the hush of the autumn night IN I hear the voice of the sea, Mine are the dead of yesterday And the dead of long ago! And I think of the fleet that sailed And came back nevermore ! T. B. Aldrich. MY LIGHTHOUSES. T westward window of a palace gray, AT Which its own secret still so safely keeps That no man now its builder's name can say, Dreaming awake far more than one who sleeps, I look across the harbor's misty blue, Where sky one shade less blue meets sea, and through The air I catch one flush as if it knew Some secret of that meeting, which no sign Can show to eyes so far and dim as mine. More ships than I can count build mast by mast Gliding like ghosts, with noiseless breath and tread, "O ships and patient men who fare by sea," I stretch my hands and vainly questioning cry, "Sailed ye from West? How many nights could ye Tell by the lights just where my dear and free MY LIGHTHOUSES. And lovely land lay sleeping? Passed ye by Ah me! my selfish yearning thoughts forget 107 Ah! helpless ships and men more helpless yet, But I-ah, patient men who fare by sea, No towers of stone uphold those beacon-lights; Each thought they think of me lights road of flame My heart. I go if they but speak my name; H. H. S SONG. WEET and low, sweet and low, Wind of the western sea, Low, low, breathe and blow, Wind of the western sea! Over the rolling waters go; Come from the dying moon, and blow, Blow him again to me; While my little one, while my pretty one sleeps. Sleep and rest, sleep and rest, Father will come to thee soon; Rest, rest, on Mother's breast, Father will come to thee soon; Father will come to his babe in the nest : Silver sails all out of the west Under the silver moon: Sleep, my little one, sleep, my pretty one, sleep. HERE, MANY A TIME. Tennyson. HERE, many a time she must have walked, The dull sand brightening 'neath her feet, The cool air quivering as she talked, Or laughed, or warbled sweet. The shifting sand no trace of her, No trace the wandering wind retains, But breaking where the footsteps were Robert K. Weeks. |