| Alfred H. Miles, ed. Women Poets of the Nineteenth Century. 1907. | | | A Light Load (1891)
V. By the Sea | | By Dollie Radford (1858–1920) |
| | | THE CLOUDS have gathered soon to-night, | |
| They hang above the quiet sea, | |
| And through the air a muffled sound | |
| Is borne to me | |
| |
| From that dim island where the souls | 5 |
| Of all the Ages lie at rest; | |
| It beats upon my throbbing brain | |
| And troubled breast. | |
| |
| If thou wert standing on the shore | |
| Beside me now, and held my hand, | 10 |
| I think that I should hear it plain | |
| And understand | |
| |
| For there is one note in it all, | |
| Which loud and clear has come to me, | |
| And I have caught it in my heart | 15 |
| To tell to thee. | |
| |
| “Eyes steadfast from the watch of worlds, | |
| Hearts big with secrets of the spheres, | |
| We have no power to move you now | |
| With hopes or fears.” | 20 |
| |
| “No power,” thy soul has filled my soul, | |
| Thy life has rounded all of mine, | |
| Thy love has girt me with a strength | |
| Which is divine. | |
| |
| And when that sound perchance one day | 25 |
| Comes to us with a mighty roll, | |
| We two shall stand unmoved, and hear | |
| And learn the whole. | | | | |
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