And brook'st commandment from the heavens alone For marshalling thy waves. Yet, potent sea! How placidly thy moist lips speak ev'n now That power and grandeur can be so serene, Earth has her gorgeous towns; the earth-circling sea There is a magnet-like attraction in Some nobler voyager, that has to woo The trade-winds, and to stem the ecliptic surge. Where she will cast her anchor, and reflect CAMPBELL. LINES WRITTEN AT SORRENTO. THE wild waves madly dash and roar, Up through the cavernous rocks amain, With short, hoarse growl, they plunge and leap, Like an armed host, again and again, Battering some castellated steep. Great pulses of the ocean heart, Ever, in still increasing force, I sit alone on the glowing sand, The wondrous lore that ye would teach. The sea-weed and the shells are wise, And versed in your broad Sanscrit tongue; The rocks need not our ears and eyes To comprehend the under-song. The ocean and the shore are one; The birds and insects in the sun Are linked in one strong tie of love. Would that I might with freedom be To drink with you perpetual youth! C. P. CRANCH. HAMPTON BEACH. THE sunlight glitters keen and bright, Lies stretching to my dazzled sight Beyond the dark pine bluffs and wastes of sandy grey. The tremulous shadow of the sea! Of silvery light, rock, hill, and tree, Still as a picture, clear and free, With varying outline mark the coast for miles around. on- we tread with loose-flung rein Our seaward way, Through dark-green fields and blossoming grain, Where the wild brier-rose skirts the lane, And bends above our heads the flowering locust spray. Ha! like a kind hand on my brow Comes this fresh breeze, Cooling its dull and feverish glow, While through my being seems to flow The breath of a new life-the healing of the seas! Now rest we, where this grassy mound His feet hath set In the great waters, which have bound His granite ankles greenly round With long and tangled moss, and weeds with cool spray wet. Good-bye to Pain and Care! I take Here where these sunny waters break, And ripples this keen breeze, I shake All burdens from the heart, all weary thoughts away. I draw a freer breath-I seem Waves in the sun-the white-winged gleam Of sea-birds in the slanting beam And far-off sails which flit before the south wind free. So when Time's veil shall fall asunder, The soul may know No fearful change, nor sudden wonder, Nor sink the weight of mystery under, But with the upward rise, and with the vastness grow. And all we shrink from now may seem No new revealing; Familiar as our childhood's stream, Or pleasant memory of a dream The loved and cherished Past upon the new life stealing |