YPE of the Infinite, I look away Over thy billows, and I cannot stay My thought upon a resting-place, or make To think; then rests, then puts forth again. Engured by Ale Petit 96 THE MIDNIGHT OCEAN. Before an ear did hear thee, thou did'st mourn, Waiting, thou mighty minister of death, Lonely thy work, ere man had drawn his breath. At last thou did'st it well! the dread command DANA. THE MIDNIGHT OCEAN. T is the midnight hour: the beauteous sea, Calm as the cloudless heaven, the heaven discloses, While many a sparkling star, in quiet glee, Far down within the watery sky reposes. As if the ocean's heart were stirred With inward life, a sound is heard, Like that of dreamer, murmuring in his sleep; 'Tis partly the billow, and partly the air, That lies like a garment floating fair Above the happy deep. The sea, I ween, cannot be fanned By evening freshness from the land, For the land it is far away. But God hath willed that the sky-born breeze, In the centre of the loneliest seas, Should ever sport and play. The mighty moon, she sits above, Encircled with a zone of love, THE DISTANT SHIP. A zone of dim and tender light That makes her wakeful eye more bright; And the night looks like a mellowed day! Hath now an undisturbéd reign, And from her silent throne looks down, As upon children of her own, On the waves that lend their gentle breast In gladness, for her couch of rest! JOHN WILSON. THE DISTANT SHIP. HE sea-bird's wing, o'er ocean's breast, While the red radiance of the west Spreads kindling fast and far; And yet that splendour wins thee not; Thy still and thoughtful eye Dwells but on one dark, distant spot Of all the main and sky. Look round thee,-o'er the slumbering deep A solemn glory broods; A fire hath touched the beacon steep, And all the golden woods: A thousand gorgeous clouds on high Burn with the amber light; 97 |