To-night I saw three maidens on the beach, <br /> Dark-robed descending to the sea, <br /> So slow, so silent of all speech, <br /> And visible to me <br /> Only by that strange drift-light, dim, forlorn, <br /> Of the sun's wreck and clashing surges born. <br /> <br /> Each after other went, <br /> And they were gathered to his breast-- <br /> It seemed to me a sacrament <br /> Of some stern creed unblest: <br /> As when to rocks, that cheerless girt the bay, <br /> They bound thy holy limbs, Andromeda.<br /><br />Thomas Edward Brown<br /><br />http://www.poemhunter.com/poem/ibant-obscur/
