Poems (Hornblower)/Lines (I saw the waters, as bright they lay)

by Jane Elizabeth Roscoe Hornblower

For works with similar titles, see Lines.

LINES.

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I saw the waters, as bright they lay
In the lovely calm of a summer day,
The fair blue sky shone clear above,
All nature breathed of peace and love;
And near me there were radiant eyes,
As calm and clear as those summer skies.

And gladly I gazed on the flowing tide,
For those I loved were at my side;
The sun in glory and splendour shone,
And proudly the vessel glided on;
And softly the distant landscape played,
In its varying hues of light and shade.

And my heart was glad—short time passed by,
And again did the white-winged vessel fly
On the evening gale—and I was there,
But alas! the scene was no longer fair;
The eyes and the smile I loved were gone,
And I sat and gazed on the waves alone.

Brief time had fled—yet the shade had past
O'er my heart and life since I stood there last;
Some best beloved had fled away,
To a calmer shore and a brighter day;
And all life seemed, to my tear-dimmed eye,
As brief as the waves that glided by.

The evening shades fell chill and cold,
But my heart was filled with the dreams of old:
The gentle sound of the waters' moan,
To my memory recalled a lovelier tone,
For the setting sun, which o'er me fell,
Shone again the eyes I had loved so well.

All fled—all fled—yet I shed no tear,
I stood in faith and in calmness there;
O'er my troubled spirit the shadows rose,
But one gaze above brought my heart repose:
My lost and my loved were there, and I,
I breathed to the evening gale one sigh!