I've dream'd one dream and I've seen one form;
One dream that, dearest, shall soon be true,
One form that, my girl, I clasp in you,

That my own sweet wife shall be."

WILLIAM COX BENNETT.

[From Red-Cotton Night-Cap Country, Part i.]

E

We stand upon an eminence,—

To where the earth-shell scallops out the sea,

A sweep of semicircle; and at edge

Just as the milk-white incrustations stud

At intervals some shell-extremity,

So do the little growths attract us here,

Towns with each name I told you: say, they touch
The sea, and the sea them, and all is said,

So sleeps and sets to slumber that broad blue !

ROBERT BROWNING.

THE

[From Paracelsus, Part v.]

wroth sea's waves are edged

With foam, white as the bitten lip of Hate,
When in the solitary waste strange groups
Of young volcanos come up, cyclops-like,
Staring together with their eyes on flame.

R. BROWNING.

[From Pauline.]

LIKE a sea's arm as it goes rolling on,

Being the pulse of some great country.

R. BROWNING.

[From Meeting at Night.]

THE grey sea and the long black land;

And the yellow half-moon large and low; And the startled little waves that leap

In fiery ringlets from their sleep.

R. BROWNING.

[From In the Doorway.]

'HE water's in stripes like a snake, olive-pale

THE

To the leeward,

On the weather-side, black, spotted white with the wind.

R. BROWNING.

[From Balder the Beautiful.]

Full Godhead.

HE crieth, "Far away methinks I mark

A mighty forest dark,

Crown'd by a crimson mist; yonder it lies,
Stretching into the skies,

And farther than its darkness nought I see."

And softly answereth she,

"O Balder! 'tis the Ocean. Vast and strange,

It changeth without change,

Washing with weary waves for evermore

The dark Earth's silent shore."

ROBERT BUCHANAN.

[From Balder the Beautiful.]

The Man by the Ocean.

CALMLY it lieth, limitless and deep,

In windless summer sleep,

And from its fringe, cream-white and set with shells,

A drowsy murmur swells,

While in its shallows, on its yellow sands,

Smiling, uplifting hands,

Moves Balder, beckoning with bright looks and words

The snow-white ocean-birds.

He smiles-the heavens smile answer! All the sea

Is glistering glassily.

Far out, blue-black amid the waters dim,

Leviathan doth swim,

Spouts fountain-wise, roars loud, then sinking slow,

Seeks the green depths below.

R. BUCHANAN.

[From The City Asleep.]

'HROUGH all the thrilling waters creep

THE

Deep throbs of strange unrest,

Like washings of the windless Deep
When it is peacefullest.

A little while-God's breath will go,
And hush the flood no more;

The dawn will break-the wind will blow,

The Ocean rise and roar.

Each day with sounds of strife and death

The waters rise and call;

Each midnight, conquer'd by God's breath,

To this dead calm they fall.

R. BUCHANAN.

For Music.

ALONG the shore, along the shore

I see the wavelets meeting;

But thee I see-ah, never more,

For all my wild heart's beating. The little wavelets come and go, The tide of life ebbs to and fro,

Advancing and retreating :

But from the shore, the steadfast shore,

The sea is parted never:

And mine I hold thee evermore,

For ever and for ever.

Along the shore, along the shore,
I hear the waves resounding,
But thou wilt cross them never more
For all my wild heart's bounding:
The moon comes out above the tide,
And quiets all the waters wide,

Her pathway bright surrounding:
While on the shore, the dreary shore;
I walk with weak endeavour,

I have thy love's light evermore,

For ever and for ever.

DINAH MARIA CRAIK.

Ocean.

MORE than bare mountains 'neath a naked sky,

Or star-enchanted hollows of the night

When clouds are riven, or the most sacred light
Of summer dawns, art thou a mystery

And awe and terror and delight, O sea!
Our Earth is simple-hearted, sad to-day

Beneath the hush of snow, next morning gay

Because west-winds have promised to the lea