Page:Anthology of Magazine Verse (1921).djvu/50
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They waited, pearled in eagerness,—
Small subject wonderers of a land
Whose king was out-o'-doors
And would betimes go by.
He came—the sun!
The swift, old marvel of the sun!
For thirty midday seconds came the sun!
And you were still as every leaf he touched,
Long after his gold passing.
Small subject wonderers of a land
Whose king was out-o'-doors
And would betimes go by.
He came—the sun!
The swift, old marvel of the sun!
For thirty midday seconds came the sun!
And you were still as every leaf he touched,
Long after his gold passing.
Yes? Your breath
Went all away into the shining?
God spoke too loud that time? Tell you—
Went all away into the shining?
God spoke too loud that time? Tell you—
Sleep holds her . . .
But sleep comes creeping, and takes
No sudden throne. If it be not sleep,
But the other? . . .
But sleep comes creeping, and takes
No sudden throne. If it be not sleep,
But the other? . . .
I sit in the folds of a dread
As in a husk that widens and swells
Till it strikes the sky.
Who is it standing, a fiend
Like a mountain darkening upward
Dropping and dropping and dropping
The ocean into a glass?
Why are the walls so near and so cold?
Wavering and greenish white?
Why are they rocking, and covered with shadows
That mightily grasp and fade?
As in a husk that widens and swells
Till it strikes the sky.
Who is it standing, a fiend
Like a mountain darkening upward
Dropping and dropping and dropping
The ocean into a glass?
Why are the walls so near and so cold?
Wavering and greenish white?
Why are they rocking, and covered with shadows
That mightily grasp and fade?
. . . . . ]l know. We are under the sea.
Like a petal her face goes drifting;
A white rose petal that swirls away.
Far up is the water's clear surface;
High up, where the sky used to be;
And above it lies the good air.
We must climb . . . climb, my loveliest.
Climb . . . we cannot breathe . . . down here . . .
Under the sea.
Like a petal her face goes drifting;
A white rose petal that swirls away.
Far up is the water's clear surface;
High up, where the sky used to be;
And above it lies the good air.
We must climb . . . climb, my loveliest.
Climb . . . we cannot breathe . . . down here . . .
Under the sea.
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