| |
| OVER, the waters clear and dark | |
| Flew, like a startled bird, our bark. | |
| |
| All the day long with steady sweep | |
| Sea-gulls followed us over the deep. | |
| |
| Weird and strange were the silent shores, | 5 |
| Rich with their wealth of buried ores; | |
| |
| Mighty the forests, old and gray, | |
| With the secrets locked in their hearts away; | |
| |
| Semblance of castle and arch and shrine | |
| Towered aloft in the clear sunshine; | 10 |
| |
| And we watched for the warder, stern and grim, | |
| And the priest with his chanted prayer and hymn. | |
| |
| Over that wonderful northern sea, | |
| As one who sails in a dream, sailed we, | |
| |
| Till, when the young moon soared on high, | 15 |
| Nothing was round us but sea and sky. | |
| |
| Far in the east the pale moon swung,— | |
| A crescent dim in the azure hung; | |
| |
| But the sun lay low in the glowing west, | |
| With bars of purple across his breast. | 20 |
| |
| The skies were aflame with the sunset glow, | |
| The billows were all aflame below; | |
| |
| The far horizon seemed the gate | |
| To some mystic world’s enchanted state; | |
| |
| And all the air was a luminous mist, | 25 |
| Crimson and amber and amethyst. | |
| |
| Then silently into that fiery sea,— | |
| Into the heart of the mystery,— | |
| |
| Three ships went sailing, one by one, | |
| The fairest visions under the sun. | 30 |
| |
| Like the flame in the heart of a ruby set | |
| Were the sails that flew from each mast of jet; | |
| |
| While darkly against the burning sky | |
| Streamer and pennant floated high. | |
| |
| Steadily, silently, on they pressed | 35 |
| Into the glowing, reddening west; | |
| |
| Until, on the far horizon’s fold, | |
| They slowly passed through its gate of gold. | |
| |
| You think, perhaps, they were nothing more | |
| Than schooners laden with common ore? | 40 |
| |
| Where Care clasped hands with grimy Toil, | |
| And the decks were stained with earthly moil? | |
| |
| Oh, beautiful ships, who sailed that night | |
| Into the west from our yearning sight, | |
| |
| Full well I know that the freight ye bore | 45 |
| Was laden not for an earthly shore! | |
| |
| To some far realm ye were sailing on, | |
| Where all we have lost shall yet be won; | |
| |
| Ye were bearing thither a world of dreams, | |
| Bright as that sunset’s golden gleams; | 50 |
| |
| And hopes whose tremulous, rosy flush | |
| Grew fairer still in the twilight hush. | |
| |
| Ye were bearing hence to that mystic sphere | |
| Thoughts no mortal may utter here,— | |
| |
| Songs that on earth may not be sung,— | 55 |
| Words too holy for human tongue,— | |
| |
| The golden deeds that we would have done,— | |
| The fadeless wreaths that we would have won! | |
| |
| And hence it was that our souls with you | |
| Traversed the measureless waste of blue, | 60 |
| |
| Till you passed under the sunset gate, | |
| And to us a voice said, softly, “Wait!” | |
| |
