In Lighter Vein
OUT OF THE PAST.
A tiny picture hangs on the wall
Where the silver moon-beams across it fall;
A bit of rock and a wave or two,
A fleck of white upon the blue,
And the song of the sea comes back to me,
And its din is sweet iii my memory.
The long green rollers sweep the shore,
And pound the sands with thundering roar,
Glide backward, hissing in anger vain,
Then gather, and swift crash iii again.
Thus the song of the sea comes back to me,
With a grand and fearful harmony.' •
The winking wavelets, fall , asleep,
Darkness smothers the face of the deep,
But the restlessbreakers o'er and o'er
Pound and pound With rhythnlic roar.
" • So the song of the sea conies . back to me,
The night-surf's sombre melody.
The song of the sea as it used to be
In the days when I, too, was wild and free,
And the wind-lashed, wave-lashed rock was my
And thy"cheek Was Vet With'fleCks Of fotim:
The song of the sea comes baCk to me,
And the tears to my eyes at the memory.
Oh gracious Eventide, oh Twilight gray,
• That frontthe gloomy mansion of the night
On silvery pinions wing'st thy airy flight
O'er earth; and spreadest, by the crimson ray
Of stinse r t,titiged,'slow fading with the day,
Thy inantle's dusky gatize, in token light
Thativhatso luimati heart liatlt suffered blig
May find relief 'neatli thy protecting sway. '
Hast not some message from the spirit land,
From One bUt late departed to that shore,
The fond caressing of , wliOse withered hand
Can soothe the sorrows of the breast no more
not come then, yet faithful, sacred baud
Of mem'ries dear, thy secret blessings pour.
SONNLT