With short, sharp, violent lights made vivid,
   To southward far as the sight can roam ;
Only the swirl of the surges livid,
   The seas that climb and the surfs that comb.
Only the crag and the cliff to nor'ward,
the rocks receding, and reefs flung forward,
waifs wrecked seaward and wasted shoreward
   On shallows sheeted with flaming foam.

A grim, grey coast and a seaboard ghastly,
   And shores trod seldom by feet of men -–
Where the battered hull and the broken mast lie,
   They have lain embedded these long years ten.
Love! Love! when we wander'd here together,
Hand in hand! Hand in hand through the sparkling weather,
From the heights and hollows of fern and heather,
   God surely loved us a little then.

The skies were fairer and shores were firmer --^[2]
   The blue sea over the bright sand rolled ;
Babble and prattle, and ripple and murmur,
   Sheen of silver and glamour of gold –
   Sheen of silver and glamour of gold -


















See ! girt with tempest and winged with thunder,^[3]
   And clad with lightning and shod with sleet,
The strong winds treading the swift waves sunder^[4]
   The flying rollers with frothy feet.
One gleam like a bloodshot sword-blade swims on
The skyline, staining the green gulf crimson,
A death stroke fiercely dealt by a dim sun,
   That strikes through his stormy winding-sheet.

Oh ! brave white horses ! you gather and gallop,
   The storm sprite loosens the gusty reins ;
Oh! brave white horses! you gather and gallop,
   The storm sprite loosens the gusty reins ;
Now the stoutest ship were the frailest shallop
   In your hollow backs, on your high arched manes.
I would ride as never man has ridden
In your sleepy, swirling surges hidden,
I would ride as never man has ridden
To gulfs foreshadowed through straits forbidden,^[5]
   Where no light wearies and no love wanes,
   No love, where no love, no love wanes.