| Hunt and Lee, comps. The Book of the Sonnet. 1867. | | | | VII. “I have been mounted on life’s topmost wave” | | By George Henry Boker (1823–1890) |
| | | I HAVE been mounted on life’s topmost wave, | |
| Until my forehead kissed the dazzling cloud; | |
| I have been dashed beneath the murky shroud | |
| That yawns between the watery crests. I rave, | |
| Sometimes, like cursed Orestes; sometimes lave | 5 |
| My limbs in dews of asphodel; or, bowed | |
| With torrid heat, I moan to Heaven aloud, | |
| Or shrink with Winter in his icy cave. | |
| Now peace broods over me; now savage rage | |
| Spurns me across the world. Nor am I free | 10 |
| From nightly visions, when the pictured page | |
| Of sleep unfolds its varied leaves to me, | |
| Changing as often as the mimic stage;— | |
| And all this, lady, through my love for thee! | | | | |
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