Part 8 (1/2)

Thro low green Florida keys And greener glades of Florida seas!

And this is all I know, That all in the world worth knowing Is joy like that of the tarpon's leap In air divine with the warm suns.h.i.+ne!

DAWN-BLISS

(_Naples-on-the-Gulf_)

I went out at dawn, Pelicans were fis.h.i.+ng, Big-beaked, grey and brown; Little waves were swis.h.i.+ng.

Clouds creamed the sky, As sh.e.l.ls creamed the sh.o.r.e; Wild aery hues of beauty Round seemed to pour!

I went out at dawn, Pelicans were floating, Big beaks on their b.r.e.a.s.t.s; Up the sun came boating.

”s.h.i.+p ahoy!” I cried, To his golden sail.

Bliss-winds of beauty in me Broke--to a gale!

I went out at dawn, Pelicans were winging.

Palms waved pa.s.sion plumes, Beach sands were singing.

Stripped, save of strength, I plunged into the sea And swam, till the bliss of beauty Died away in me.

ATAVISM

I leant out over a ledging cliff and looked down into the sea, Where weed and kelp and dulse swayed, in green translucency; Where the abalone clung to the rock and the star-fish lay about, Purpling the sands that slid away under the silver trout.

And the sea-urchin too was there, and the sea-anemone.

It was a world of watery shapes and hues and wizardry.

And I felt old stirrings wake in me, under the tides of time, Sea-hauntings I had brought with me out of the ancient slime.

And now, as I muse, I cannot rid my senses of the spell That in a tidal trance all things around me drift and swell Under the sea of the Universe, down into which strange eyes Keep peering at me, as I peered, with wonder and surmise.

RE-RECKONING

Two years have gone, and again I stand On the bow of a mighty s.h.i.+p That pushes her way 'twixt sea and stars With soft and dreamy dip.

Two years of labouring, heart and hand, Of waging spirit-wars, Of wondering ever what life is-- And if death heals its scars.

Two years; and again the mast-bell sounds Above me--with a low voice, As ghostly as the white phosphor-foam That breaks with the old noise Of waters that have washed all bounds Of earth, that is man's home-- His ark--on the wide ether flung, Unrestingly to roam.

For, even as we, is this our earth An endless wanderer Far down a universe with vast Strange voyagings astir; And where time ever brings to birth A craving, never past, To fare from where we are, to where No anchor ever was cast.