Eos: An Epic of the Dawn, and Other Poems

By Nicholas Flood Davin

 

BY THE SEA—A DREAM.

 
Where the wild sea rolls up the sultry sand,
               Methought we met;
I marked the movements of the billows grand,
               And eyes of jet,

On days of calm upon its placid breast,
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               Watch’d the sunlight:
And then my glance upon thy face would rest,
               More calm, more bright.

When rose the moon above the slumberous sea,
               I gazed, the while
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Her sweet light rain’d enchantment, then on thee
               I look’d; thy smile

Was sweeter than those magic beams; my breath
               Became a sigh.
Ah! if such an hour should come dread death,
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               ’Twere sweet to die!

And then again, heart-glad, my laugh would break
               As stirr’d by wine,
Or joyful news, to know that I could take
               Thy hand in mine,
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And feel I was not all unprized by thee,
               To whom my soul
Turn’d strong, as turns the full stream to the sea,
               The needle to the pole. [Page 84]