I sat upon the mossy rocks
Beside the southern sea,
While overhead the summer clouds
Were drifting lazily.
I watched their purple shadows trail
Across the sea and hide
Within the hollows of the waves
That rode the rising tide.
Sometimes the little flakes of foam
Dashed up in twinkling spray;
And out along their silver paths
The ships sailed far away.
As through the sun I followed them
With straining, eager eyes,
From out the sparkling waves I saw
A shining vision rise.
It seemed a ghostly castle white,
With battlement and tower,
That hung on the horizon’s verge
By some unearthly power.
I saw its spectral turrets gleam
As white as ivory,
And wondered who the wizard king
That reigned upon the sea.
—But while, with breathless gaze, I watched
This castle, by and by
It vanished in the underworld
Beyond the sea and sky!