Upon the stark sand reaches; and the glee
Of the mad wind, its maniac monody,
Mingles with ocean's dithyrambic moan.

Not so yestreen, when westward flamed the sun,
Flinging athwart the waves a lustrous path,
Tinging the sky with colors rich and strange!
The black night wrought this mystery of wrath,
This mood demonic (reason seems there none),
This weird and inexplicable sea change!




SAINT SEPULCHRE'S BESIDE THE SEA


The new moon marked the twilight hour,
A night-jar quavered eerily,
And swallows circled round the tower--
Saint Sepulchre's beside the sea.

The ivy clung, the ivy climbed,
The wilding rose twined tenderly,
And Time, the overlord, sublimed
Saint Sepulchre's beside the sea.

Below, the surge, the solemn surge,
Murmured and moaned unceasingly,
For all its golden past a dirge--