Stars of the Desert/A Sea Pink
A Sea Pink
She came, a maiden from the North,
To dwell among a Southern race,
And lovely Northern eyes looked forth
In azure from her oval face.
Her hair was like the pale faint gold
September's sun sheds o'er the land,
And soft to touch and slim to hold
The white perfection of her hand.
They loved her on that Southern shore:
Tall fisher men and dark-haired boys
Were fain to linger round her door
With shells and kindred ocean toys.
Yet was their love restrained by fear,
So still she was, so calm and pale,
She seemed a star, remotely dear,
No human love might dare assail.
Whilst in her chamber, small and bright
With sea pinks and blue lavender,
She wondered through the summer night
Why love had never come to her.
Her fancy wandered to the shore
Sunburnt beneath the noonday skies,
Again the fisher lads she saw,
Their willing arms and- eager eyes.
Saw their young smiles, whose tender gleams
Held all the love she had not known,
And, blushing in her morning dreams,
Felt their red lips against her own.
But all day long her self-control
Concealed her loneliness too well.
Alas! these barriers of the soul,
So slight, yet so invincible!
Time passed: her azure eyes grew sad,
Dull sorrow dimmed their dancing blue,
While many a pensive fisher lad
Envied the seagulls as they flew.
Envied them their sweet liberty,
Free of the ocean, free to love,
On light untrammelled wings, while he
As well might woo the stars above
As the young maiden of his choice.
Her gentle beauty bloomed in vain,
She knew no art, he found no voice
To bridge the gulf between them twain.
How should a fisher lad aspire
To win a thing as fair as this?
So after days of dumb desire
Some duskier maiden claimed his kiss.
And day by day the ripples broke
Around the fishers in the bay.
Night after night alone she woke
Till all her youth had passed away.
The swift sweet years when she was young,
Her golden years, slipped lightly past,
And thus the song remained unsung,
The rose ungathered till the last.