THE GARDENS OF THE SEA

Beneath the ocean’s sapphire lid We gazed far down, and who had dreamed, Till pure and cold its treasures gleamed, What lucent jewels there lay hid?— Opal and jacinth, orb and shell, Calice and filament of jade, And fonts of malachite inlaid With lotus and with asphodel,— Red sparks that give the dolphin pause, Lamps of the ocean-elf, and gems Long lost from crystal diadems, And veiled in shrouds of glowing gauze. Below, the sifted sunlight passed To twilight, where the azure blaze Of scentless flowers from the haze About their dim pavilions cast Betrayed what seemed forgotten pearls, As shimmering weeds alert with light Enticed the half-reluctant sight To caverns where the sea-kelp swirls. Splendid and chill those gardens shone, Where sound is not, and tides are winds,— Where, fugitive, the naiad finds Eternal autumn, hushed and lone; Till one had said that in her bow’rs Were mixt the nacres of the dawn, That thence the sunset’s dyes were drawn, And there the rainbow sank its tow’rs. Where gorgeous flowers of chrysoprase In songless meadows bared their blooms, The deep’s unweariable looms With shifting splendors lured the gaze. And zoned on iridescent sands, Pellucid glories came and went— Silver and scarlet madly blent In living stars and blazoned bands. Hydras of emerald and blue Were part of swaying tapestries Whose woof from ivies of the seas Stole each inquietude of hue. And in those royal halls lay lost The oriflammes and golden oars Of argosies from lyric shores— ’Mid glimmering crowns and croziers tost. And purple poppies vespertine Glowed on the weird and sunken ledge, Beyond whose rich, vermillion edge Rose tentacles from shapes unseen— Undulant bronze and glossy toils That shuddered in the lustrous tide And forms in restless crimson dyed That caught the light in stealthy coils.... Far down we gazed, nor dared to dream What final sorceries would be When in those gardens of the sea The lilies of the moon should gleam.