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SHINE! shine! shine! | |
| Pour down your warmth, great Sun! | |
| While we bask—we two together. | |
| |
| Two together! | |
| Winds blow South, or winds blow North, | 5 |
| Day come white, or night come black, | |
| Home, or rivers and mountains from home, | |
| Singing all time, minding no time, | |
| While we two keep together…. | |
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| Blow! blow! blow! | 10 |
| Blow up, sea-winds, along Paumanok’s shore! | |
| I wait and I wait, till you blow my mate to me…. | |
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| Soothe! soothe! soothe! | |
| Close on its wave soothes the wave behind, | |
| And again another behind, embracing and lapping, every one close, | 15 |
| But my love soothes not me, not me. | |
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| Low hangs the moon—it rose late; | |
| O it is lagging—O I think it is heavy with love, with love. | |
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| O madly the sea pushes, pushes upon the land, | |
| With love—with love. | 20 |
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| O night! do I not see my love fluttering out there among the breakers? | |
| What is that little black thing I see there in the white? | |
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| Loud! loud! loud! | |
| Loud I call to you, my love! | |
| High and clear I shoot my voice over the waves; | 25 |
| Surely you must know who is here, is here; | |
| You must know who I am, my love. | |
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| Low-hanging moon! | |
| What is that dusky spot in your brown yellow? | |
| O it is the shape, the shape of my mate! | 30 |
| O moon, do not keep her from me any longer. | |
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| Land! land! O land! | |
| Whichever way I turn, O I think you could give my mate back again, if you only would, | |
| For I am almost sure I see her dimly whichever way I look. | |
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| O rising stars! | 35 |
| Perhaps the one I want so much will rise, will rise with some of you. | |
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| O throat! O trembling throat! | |
| Sound clearer through the atmosphere! | |
| Pierce the woods, the earth; | |
| Somewhere listening to catch you, must be the one I want. | 40 |
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| Shake out, carols! | |
| Solitary here—the night’s carols! | |
| Carols of lonesome love! Death’s carols! | |
| Carols under that lagging, yellow, waning moon! | |
| O, under that moon, where she droops almost down into the sea! | 45 |
| O reckless, despairing carols. | |
| |
| But soft! sink low; | |
| Soft! let me just murmur; | |
| And do you wait a moment, you husky-noised sea; | |
| For somewhere I believe I heard my mate responding to me, | 50 |
| So faint—I must be still, be still to listen; | |
| But not altogether still, for then she might not come immediately to me. | |
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| Hither, my love! | |
| Here I am! Here! | |
| With this just-sustain’d note I announce myself to you; | 55 |
| This gentle call is for you, my love, for you. | |
| |
| Do not be decoy’d elsewhere! | |
| That is the whistle of the wind—it is not my voice; | |
| That is the fluttering, the fluttering of the spray; | |
| Those are the shadows of leaves. | 60 |
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| O darkness! O in vain! | |
| O I am very sick and sorrowful. | |
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| O brown halo in the sky, near the moon, drooping upon the sea! | |
| O troubled reflection in the sea! | |
| O throat! O throbbing throat! | 65 |
| O all—and I singing uselessly, uselessly all the night. | |
| |
| Yet I murmur, murmur on! | |
| O murmurs—you yourselves make me continue to sing, I know not why. | |
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| O past! O life! O songs of joy! | |
| In the air—in the woods—over fields; | 70 |
| Loved! loved! loved! loved! loved! | |
| But my love no more, no more with me! | |
| We two together no more. | |
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