Through Time and Bitter Distance

Unknown to you, I walk the cheerless shore.

The cutting blast, the hurl of biting brine

May freeze, and still, and bind the waves at war,

Ere you will ever know, O! Heart of mine,

That I have sought, reflected in the blue

Of these sea depths, some shadow of your eyes;

Have hoped the laughing waves would sing of you,

But this is all my starving sight decries -

 

I

 

Far out at sea a sail

Bends to the freshening breeze,

Yields to the rising gale

That sweeps the seas;

 

II

 

Yields, as a bird wind-tossed,

To saltish waves that fling

Their spray, whose rime and frost

Like crystals cling

 

III

 

To canvas, mast and spar,

Till, gleaming like a gem,

She sinks beyond the far

Horizon's hem. 

 

IV

 

Lost to my longing sight,

And nothing left to me

Save an oncoming night, -

An empty sea.

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