Songs and Sonnets (Coleman)/As One Embarking

by Helena Jane Coleman

AS ONE EMBARKING.

 

As one embarking turns deep-visioned eyes
Back to his fast-receding native shore,
Whose crystal tides shall ebb and flow no more
For him, or sound their silver harmonies;
And there beholds how all the landscape lies
Transfigured with a charm it never wore
In those indifferent early days before
He faced the loneliness of foreign skies;

So earth becomes, to eyes bedimmed with tears
Of that impending change whose silent knell
Sounds at the heart of slowly-waning years
(Even to those who always loved it well),
Transfigured with a charm that more endears,
And touched with beauty indescribable.