| |
| THE LOVELY purple of the noon’s bestowing | |
| Has vanished from the waters, where it flung | |
| A royal color, such as gems are throwing | |
| Tyrian or regal garniture among. | |
| ’T is night, and overhead the sky is gleaming, | 5 |
| Through the slight vapor trembles each dim star; | |
| I turn away—my heart is sadly dreaming | |
| Of scenes they do not light, of scenes afar. | |
| My friends, my absent friends! | |
| Do you think of me, as I think of you? | 10 |
| |
| By each dark wave around the vessel sweeping, | |
| Farther am I from old dear friends removed; | |
| Till the lone vigil that I now am keeping, | |
| I did not know how much you were beloved. | |
| How many acts of kindness little heeded, | 15 |
| Kind looks, kind words, rise half reproachful now! | |
| Hurried and anxious, my vexed life has speeded, | |
| And memory wears a soft accusing brow. | |
| My friends, my absent friends! | |
| Do you think of me, as I think of you? | 20 |
| |
| The very stars are strangers, as I catch them | |
| Athwart the shadowy sails that swell above; | |
| I cannot hope that other eyes will watch them | |
| At the same moment with a mutual love. | |
| They shine not there, as here they now are shining; | 25 |
| The very hours are changed.—Ah, do ye sleep? | |
| O’er each home pillow midnight is declining— | |
| May some kind dream at least my image keep! | |
| My friends, my absent friends! | |
| Do you think of me, as I think of you? | 30 |
| |
| Yesterday has a charm, To-day could never | |
| Fling o’er the mind, which knows not till it parts | |
| How it turns back with tenderest endeavor | |
| To fix the past within the heart of hearts. | |
| Absence is full of memory, it teaches | 35 |
| The value of all old familiar things; | |
| The strengthener of affection, while it reaches | |
| O’er the dark parting, with an angel’s wings. | |
| My friends, my absent friends! | |
| Do you think of me, as I think of you? | 40 |
| |
| The world, with one vast element omitted— | |
| Man’s own especial element, the earth; | |
| Yet, o’er the waters is his rule transmitted | |
| By that great knowledge whence has power its birth. | |
| How oft on some strange loveliness while gazing, | 45 |
| Have I wished for you—beautiful as new, | |
| The purple waves like some wild army raising | |
| Their snowy banners as the ship cuts through. | |
| My friends, my absent friends! | |
| Do you think of me, as I think of you? | 50 |
| |
| Bearing upon its wings the hues of morning, | |
| Up springs the flying-fish like life’s false joy, | |
| Which of the sunshine asks that frail adorning | |
| Whose very light is fated to destroy. | |
| Ah, so doth genius on its rainbow pinion | 55 |
| Spring from the depths of an unkindly world; | |
| So spring sweet fancies from the heart’s dominion— | |
| Too soon in death the scorched-up wing is furled. | |
| My friends, my absent friends! | |
| Whate’er I see is linked with thoughts of you. | 60 |
| |
| No life is in the air, but in the waters | |
| Are creatures, huge and terrible and strong; | |
| The swordfish and the shark pursue their slaughters, | |
| War universal reigns these depths along. | |
| Like some new island in the ocean springing, | 65 |
| Floats on the surface some gigantic whale, | |
| From its vast head a silver fountain flinging, | |
| Bright as the fountain in a fairy tale. | |
| My friends, my absent friends! | |
| I read such fairy legends while with you. | 70 |
| |
| Light is amid the gloomy canvas spreading, | |
| The moon is whitening the dusky sails, | |
| From the thick bank of clouds she masters, shedding | |
| The softest influence that o’er night prevails. | |
| Pale is she like a young queen pale with splendor, | 75 |
| Haunted with passionate thoughts too fond, too deep; | |
| The very glory that she wears is tender, | |
| The very eyes that watch her beauty fain would weep. | |
| My friends, my absent friends! | |
| Do you think of me, as I think of you? | 80 |
| |
| Sunshine is ever cheerful, when the morning | |
| Wakens the world with cloud-dispelling eyes; | |
| The spirits mount to glad endeavor, scorning | |
| What toil upon a path so sunny lies. | |
| Sunshine and hope are comrades, and their weather | 85 |
| Calls into life an energy like Spring’s; | |
| But memory and moonlight go together, | |
| Reflected in the light that either brings. | |
| My friends, my absent friends! | |
| Do you think of me, then? I think of you. | 90 |
| |
| The busy deck is hushed, no sounds are waking | |
| But the watch pacing silently and slow; | |
| The waves against the sides incessant breaking, | |
| And rope and canvas swaying to and fro. | |
| The topmast sail, it seems like some dim pinnacle | 95 |
| Cresting a shadowy tower amid the air; | |
| While red and fitful gleams come from the binnacle, | |
| The only light on board to guide us—where? | |
| My friends, my absent friends! | |
| Far from my native land, and far from you. | 100 |
| |
| On one side of the ship, the moonbeam’s shimmer | |
| In luminous vibrations sweeps the sea, | |
| But where the shadow falls, a strange, pale glimmer | |
| Seems, glowworm like, amid the waves to be. | |
| All that the spirit keeps of thought and feeling | 105 |
| Takes visionary hues from such an hour; | |
| But while some fantasy is o’er me stealing, | |
| I start—remembrance has a keener power: | |
| My friends, my absent friends! | |
| From the fair dream I start to think of you. | 110 |
| |
| A dusk line in the moonlight—I discover | |
| What all day long I vainly sought to catch; | |
| Or is it but the varying clouds that hover | |
| Thick in the air, to mock the eyes that watch? | |
| No; well the sailor knows each speck, appearing, | 115 |
| Upon the tossing waves, the far-off strand; | |
| To that dark line our eager ship is steering. | |
| Her voyage done—to-morrow we shall land. | |
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