Beneath the ocean’s sapphire lid
We gazed far down, and who had dreamed,
Till pure and cold its treasures gleamed,
What lucent jewels there lay hid?—
Opal and jacinth, orb and shell,
Calice and filament of jade,
And fonts of malachite inlaid
With lotus and with asphodel,—
Red sparks that give the dolphin pause,
Lamps of the ocean-elf, and gems
Long lost from crystal diadems,
And veiled in shrouds of glowing gauze.
Below, the sifted sunlight passed
To twilight, where the azure blaze
Of scentless flowers from the haze
About their dim pavilions cast
Betrayed what seemed forgotten pearls,
As shimmering weeds alert with light
Enticed the half-reluctant sight
To caverns where the sea-kelp swirls.
Splendid and chill those gardens shone,
Where sound is not, and tides are winds,—
Where, fugitive, the naiad finds
Eternal autumn, hushed and lone;
Till one had said that in her bow’rs
Were mixt the nacres of the dawn,
That thence the sunset’s dyes were drawn,
And there the rainbow sank its tow’rs.