Page:Poems (1853).djvu/165

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 ’Tis said that far beneath the wild waves rushing,
 Where sea-flowers bloom and fabled Peris dwell,
 That there the restless waters cease their gushing,
 And leave their dead within some sparkling cell,
 Where gems are gleaming, and the lone sea shell
 Is breathing its sweet music. And ’tis said
 That Time, who weaveth over Earth a spell
 Of blight and ruin, o’er the Ocean’s dead
He passeth lightly on, with trackless, silent tread.

 Then, though no marble e’er shall rise for thee,
 No monument to mark thy last long home,
 Thine ocean grave unhonored shall not be,—
 The coral insect there shall rear a tomb
 That age shall ne’er destroy; and there shall bloom
 The fadeless ocean flowers. And though the glare
 Of the bright sunbeams ne’er shall light its gloom,
 Yet glancing eyes and forms unearthly fair
Shall throng around thy couch, and hymn a requiem there.

 Now fare thee well! I will not weep that thou
 Didst pass so soon away; for though thou wert
 Still in thy boyhood’s prime, and thy fair brow
 Undimmed by age; yet sad was thy young heart,
 For thou hadst seen the light of life depart,