I dreamt that I went down into the sea
Unpained amid the waters-and a world
Of splendid wrecks, formless and numberless,
Broke on my vision. It did seem the skies
Were o'er me pure as infancy-yet waves
Did rattle round my head, and fill mine ears
Like the measureless roar of the far fight
When battle has set up her trumpet shout!
I seemed to breathe the air; and yet the sea
Kept dallying with my life as I sunk down.
"T was in the fitful fashion of a dream—
Water and air-walking, and yet no earth.
The deep seemed bare and dry-and yet I went
With a rude dashing round my reeking face,
Until my outstretched and trembling feet
Stood still upon a bed of glittering pearls!
The hot sun was right over me, at noon-
Sudden it withered up the ocean—-till
I seemed amidst a waste of shapeless clay.
A thousand bones were whitening in his rays,
Mass upon mass,-confused and without end.
I walked on the parched wilderness, and saw
The hopeless beauty of a lifeless world!
Wealth that once made some poor vain heart grow light
And leap with it into the flood, was there
Clutched in the last mad agony. And gold
That makes of life a happiness and curse-
That vaunts on earth its brilliancy, lay here-
An outcast tyrant in his loneliness-
Beggared by jewels that ne'er shone through blood
Upon the brow of kings! Here there were all
The bright beginnings and the costly ends,
Which envied man enjoys and expiates,—
Splendour, and death--silence, and human hopes--
Gems, and smooth bones--life's pageantry! the cross
That thought to save some wretch in his late need
Hugged in its last idolatry-all, all
Lay here in deathly brotherhood—no breath—
Nɔ sympathy--no sound--no motion and no hope!
I stood and listened,-
The eternal flood rushed to its desolate grave!
And I could hear above me all the waves
Go bellowing to their bounds! Still I strode on,
Journeying amid the brightest of earth's things
Where yet was never life, nor hope, nor joy!
My eye could not but look, and my ear hear;
For now strange sights, and beautiful, and rare,
Seemed ordered from the deep through the rich prism
Above me--and sounds undulated through
The surges, till my soul grew mad with visions!
Beneath the canopy of waters I could see
Palaces and cities crumbled-and the ships
Sunk in the engorging whirlpool, while the laugh
Of revelry went wild along their decks, and ere
The oath was strangled in their swollen throats ;-
For there they lay, just hurried to one grave
With horrible contortions and fixed eyes
Waving among the cannon, as the surge
Would slowly lift them—and their streaming hair Twining around the blades that were their pride.
And there were two locked in each others arms,
And they were lovers!
Oh God, how beautiful! cheek to cheek
And heart to heart upon that splendid deep,
A bridal bed of pearls !—a burial
Worthy of two so young and innocent.
And they did seem to lie there, like two gems
The fairest in the halls of ocean-both
Sepulchred in love—a tearless death-one look,
One wish, one smile, one mantle for their shroud,
One hope, one kiss-and that not yet quite cold!
How beautiful to die in such fidelity!
E'er yet the curse has ripened, or the heart
Begins to hope for death as for a joy,
And feels its streams grow thicker, till they cloy
With wishes that have sickened and grown old.
I saw their cheeks were pure and passionless,
And all their love had passed into a smile,
And in that smile they died!
Sudden a battle rolled above my head,
And there came down a flash into the deep
Illumining its dim chambers—and it past;
The waters shuddered-and a thousand sounds
Sung hellish echoes through the caverned waste.
The blast was screaming on the upper wave,
And as I looked above me I could see
The ships go booming through the murky storm, Sails rent-masts staggering-and a spectre crew,— Blood mingled with the foam bathing their bows,— And I could hear their shrieks as they went on Crying of murder to their bloody foes!
A form shot downward close at my feet;
His hand still grasped the steel-and his red eye
Was full of curses even in his death;—
For he had been flung into the abyss
By fellow men before his heart was cold!
Again I stood beside the lovely pair ;-
The storm and conflict were as they'd not been.
I stood and shrieked and laughed, and yet no voice,
That I could hear, came in my madness;-
It hardly seemed that they were dead--so calm,
So beautiful! the sea-stars round them shone,
Like emblems of their souls so cold and pure!
The bending grass wept silent over them,
Truer than any friend on earth-their tomb
The jewelry of the ocean, and their dirge
The everlasting music of its roar.
I seemed to stand wretched in dreamy thought,
Cursing the constancy of human hearts
And vanity of human hopes—and felt
As I have felt on earth in my sick hours ;-
How thankless was this legacy of breath
To those who knew the wo of a scathed brain!
Oh ocean-ocean! if thou coverest up
The ruins of a proud and broken soul
And giv'st such peace and solitude as this,
Thy depths are heaven to man's ingratitude!
I seemed to struggle in an agony;
My streaming tears gushed out to meet the wave;
I woke in terror, and the beaded sweat
Coursed down my temples like a very rain
As though I had just issued from the sea!
There was a time, when the o'erhanging sky,
And the fair earth with its variety,
Mountain and valley, continent and sea,
Were not alone the unmoving things that lie
Slumbering beneath the sun's unclouded eye;
But every fountain had its spirit then,
That held communion oft with holy men,
And frequent from the heavenward mountain came
Bright creatures, hovering round on wings of flame,
And some mysterious sybil darkly gave
Responses from the dim and hidden cave :-
Voices were heard waking the silent air,
A sclemn music echoed from the wood,
|