THE SEA'S SECRET.

Just as it is, it hath been, love, I know— So long ago That time and place have faded: I forget What rivers ran, what hills closed round us; yet Thus much my soul remembers: thou and I Saw the sun's rise and set, felt life slip by. And then it was that first the deep-voiced sea Sang low to thee and me Its ancient secrets by the lonely shore; And we two watched the strange birds dip and soar Between the fading sea-line, far and dim, And the white dazzle of the sands' long rim. All that thou saidst—all that we heard and told In some lost language old— Has perished like the speech; yet this remains: From the vast desert of the ocean-plains A great moon climbing, with a dull red glare Like smouldering fire, far up the purple air. And then—I cannot grasp it—yet I know That something, long ago, Held fast thy soul to mine with cords of pain And marvellous joy, and love's sweet loss and gain. All save that love the years have swept away— A thousand years, a single yesterday! But when my soul dreams, by the lonely sea, Back to eternity, I hear an echo, through its hollow moan, From those lost lives drowned in the centuries gone: I catch the haunting memory, and I know The secret that you told me long ago. G.A. Davis.