Come up once more before mine eyes,
Sweet halcyon days, warm summer sea,
Faint orange of the morning skies
And dark-lined shores upon the lee!
Touched with the sunrise, sea and sky
All still on Memory's canvas lie:
The scattered isles with India ink
Dot the wide back-ground's gold and pink:
Unstirring in the Sunday calm,
Their profile cedars, sharply drawn,
Bold black against the flushing dawn,
Take shape like clumps of tropic palm.
Night shadows still the distance dim
(Ultra-marine) where ocean's brim
Upholdeth the horizon-rim.
Once more in thought we seem to creep
By lonely reefs where sea-birds scream,
Ulysses-like, along the deep
Borne onward in the ocean-stream.
The sea-floor spreadeth glassy still;
No breath the idle sail doth fill;
Our oar-blades smite the heavy seas;
Under the world the morning breeze
Treads with the sun the unknown ways.
Thus steer we o'er the solemn main
Eating the Lotus-fruit again,
Dreaming that time forever stays,
Singing "Where, Absence, is thy sting?"
Listening to hear our echoes ring
Through the far rocks where Sirens sing.