16
INSIDE PLUM ISLAND.
Dreaming, he loitered still, we thought, Within his dream's bright portals;We trifled with the hour, but he Had been with the immortals!
In vain, at night, we sought that sound— Stars over us and underThrough all that watery wilderness Building a word of wonder;
Or groping, when the light-house spark Its witch-dance kept before us,Or when the unseen moon distilled Her deathly glamour o'er us;
Or when, the twin lamps of their towers Emerald and ruby gleaming,Across the shadowy Merrimack The channel lights came streaming,—
In vain our lingering halloo, Our roundelay untiring,No silver cry chimed far or nigh Of all that silver quiring.
