A Memory of the Sea

Oh surf-toss'd torn tormented shore

Grudging still the waves for more

Oh what terror what majesty

Beheld mine eyes within the sea

 

But I know a face 'tis fiercer still

Melting more than rocks and shell

One untold by myth or lore

Nameless here forevermore

 

Oh crimson waves of evening-time

Casting forth thy rays sublime

Art thou the rays within her eyes

Which cause my heart to sympathize

 

But no, it cert'ly could not be

For her face is not held in thee

Her's is not a mere reflection

But one true to her own complexion

 

Oh golden orchestra of noon

Crashing, consuming, crowning soon

Can you account the golden love

Which lies within my darling dove

 

Surely not, temporal being

For your despair is not of grieving

Your sorrow be not as her's, true

'Tis but a melancholic hue

 

And silver sea upon first light

Can thy tears hope to adjourn the night

Or the streams of which her eyes adorn

As blood from injury of thorn

 

See the sea so slowly grinding

And in the middle of its timing

Reflected from the sky so shining

A mourning rainstorm's silver lining

 

Behold ivory waves upon the sand

Warning night has come at hand

Can you but fathom the obscurity

Of my love's mysterious love for me

 

A love much deeper than thy crest

Farther than thy ocean's breadth

Sweeter than thy airy breath

Brighter than stars so mirrored down

Wherein the sweetest lovers drown

 

And can you hope your beauty to account

Or match her face to thy endless fount

Though grand and wond'rous as you be

Can never touch the face of she

 

Her, whose eyes, more clearer still

Than every windless liquid hill

Which you so gently set to sail

To match her eyes would surely fail

 

Cursed and yet beloved by heaven

Given to men that battle fields even

She drew their blood and corpses high

Beneath the city walls so nigh

 

Though their faces with your water veil

'Twas she who set their ships asail

And sent them to you hopelessly

Yet still hoping to recover she

 

For though she loathed the whim of war

They forayed and furied only more

They did not care her choice of grace

But fought to gaze upon her face

 

Oh death-deserving beauty

Oh angel preserving through me

Tarry with me but a while

While I trace thy scarlet smile

 

Return with me to the rock strewn sea

Hold my hand upon the sand

Let the ocean's fashions cool our passions

Hold me tight 'till moon is bright

 

A sagely lord above our heads

Sending us to merry beds

Shining on your golden crown

Gleam the heavens, surging down

 

A light so pure absolves, perchance

Any deed beneath its glance

Take then this night and wear it free

The life of me confined in thee

 

Consume our love sweet golden earth

Feel the desire that gave us birth

Under heaven's starry stare

Feel our passions fill the air

 

And then in firstly fawning rays

As our bodies do eachother's graze

I ponder deep and ardently

What words may liken unto thee

 

And so I write inspired verse

Though ill-formed and rather terse

I write them deep in page and cloud

Musing as I speak aloud

 

“I think that I shall never see

A poem symbolic as the sea

Nor e'er behold a face so fine

As that fair beauty which is thine”

 

And then we shall again 'till night

For chance to draw our bodies tight

Still as corpses in their graves

Wait to melt into the waves