Turquoise-green the laughing sea And the beach is ivory, Creamy-yellow, creamy-smooth— How the small waves lisp and soothe! Those grave woods will not betray, All the shore is ours to-day, There’s no soul for many a mile And the curved wav ... Read more

Turquoise-green the laughing sea And the beach is ivory, Creamy-yellow, creamy-smooth— How the small waves lisp and soothe! Those grave woods will not betray, All the shore is ours to-day, There’s no soul for many a mile And the curved waves call and smile, Coax and whisper and beguile ... Quick, your garments cast aside Go to meet the rising tide! Childlike run we hand in hand Down the slope of hard smooth sand, From the kissing sun’s embrace To the kissing waves that race Frothing rainbows round our feet— O the cool shock sharp and sweet! O the healing of the sea, Clearer than it seemed to be! Even clearer—lucent green Like the eyes of some sea queen. Looking through the water’s shimmer Can you see a moving glimmer Whiter than the rippled sand, White as snow—a beckoning hand? Dive, and lo! it swings from sight, Vanishing in broken light. She is gone, but memories stay And transfigure all the day; In the waves’ soft touch there lingers Something of her cool white fingers; Is that shell her gleaming throat, That dark weed, her hair afloat?... So her troubling beauty’s power Like the perfume of a flower Penetrates the sea and air Making everything more fair: Pleasure stabbing to the brain With the joy that touches pain. Of the water’s strength made free, We’re a part of all the sea; Close its clean caress enfolds, And each joy that motion holds Taste we—glad to be alive— Race the curling waves, or dive To green dusk, and meet the day Swift before has passed away All our crystal pathway thick With the bubbles rising quick; Or when that is done we lie Rocking, gazing at the sky, Blue and sweet and purely lit That we gasp to look on it.... Looking through the sunshot deep, Where our sea-maid lies asleep, Throat upflung, as white as lime, With the clear waves keeping time To the heaving of her breast— Here we see to veil her rest Every jewel-tint of green: Jade, smaragdus, tourmaline, Beryl and green sapphire’s light, Streaky solid malachite, Chrysoprase and peacock-sheen Of the opal’s shifting green— Patched and barred with purple dye Where the rocks like watch-dogs lie, Waiting crouched beneath the wave, Hungry, cruel as the grave.... Colour floods our souls until They must brim and overspill, Cups too small to bear away Half the beauty of the day. But when walking bound with heat Shackled in the airless street, When the sky has lost its light And o’er all the dust is white— We shall turn to dreams of this As a damned soul thinks of bliss, And the loveliness we fail Now to grasp shall count full tale. Less