THE NOONTIDE CALM.
Reading edition
I.
The azure sky leans on the sea,
Inverting its concavity,
And in the waveless depths below
Re-forms and rolls its cloudy show;
For cloud and cloud are piled to shape
A mountain here, and there a cape,
Until the heavens seem to rest
A cheek upon the ocean's breast,
And listen, with white lips apart,
To catch the beating of its heart.
Fathoms deep, oh, fathoms deep,
Maid and merman lie asleep;
Calm above and calm below;
Sheering to the current's flow,
Vessels red and vessels brown,
Floating, cast a shadow down
On the seafolks' coral town.
II.
Slowly the shadows crawl
Along the wall
Of the sea-king's hall.
The sea-grass curtains thro'
He looks out upon the blue
Glimmering regions that bow down
To the magic of his crown.
Lord of half an ocean, he
Loves to live where rivers three,
Flowing from the windy hills,
Drinkers of a thousand rills,
Pour into the thirsty sea.
There he delights to lie,
Mirroring the lucent sky
In his wild and wondrous eye.
Far, far o'erhead he marks
The swordfish and the sharks
Darting up and floating down;
Sees the porpoise, blue and brown,
Plunge thro' the silver nebula
Of fish;—the herring in dismay
Break, scatter like a starry host
Whose path some errant sun has cross'd.
And he smiles to watch the race
When the merry dolphins chase
A dogfish from his flying prey;
Where the clumsy sea-cows stray,
Herded by the mermen strong,
Who, with lances light and long,
Keep the gaunt sea-wolves at bay.
III.
Shades of vessels that have passed
Rope and sail and yellow mast—
On the seafolks' town are cast;
And the Merking, startled by
Shadows in his crystal sky,
Calls the guard at palace gate,
Where he reigns in ancient state,
Sitting on a coral throne,
With sea-mosses overgrown—
Calls his guard to send a slave
Skyward, soaring thro' the wave,
To command the mariner
To move on. The messenger,
A dolphin bold,
With back of gold,
Swiftly cleaving, swirling, leaving
A flashing trail,
As from each scale
And finny tip
A silver spray of bubbles slip.
Higher, higher rises he,
Till from the surface of the sea
He leaps, and gloriously
Rolls his flashing coat of mail
In the splendor of the day.
Then the sailors trim the sail,
Knowing that the sprightly gale
Cometh when the dolphins play.
Haste away! Haste away!
For the breeze
Frets the seas,
And the rim of opal hue
Burns a green and flames a blue.