I AM like one that for long days had sate, <br />With seaward eyes set keen against the gale, <br />On some lone foreland, watching sail by sail, <br />The portbound ships for one ship that was late; <br />And sail by sail, his heart burned up with joy, <br />And cruelly was quenched, until at last <br />One ship, the looked-for pennant at its mast, <br />Bore gaily, and dropt safely past the buoy; <br />And lo! the loved one was not there - was dead. <br />Then would he watch no more; no more the sea <br />With myriad vessels, sail by sail, perplex <br />His eyes and mock his longing. Weary head, <br />Take now thy rest; eyes, close; for no more me <br />Shall hopes untried elate, or ruined vex. <br /> <br />For thus on love I waited; thus for love <br />Strained all my senses eagerly and long; <br />Thus for her coming ever trimmed my song; <br />Till in the far skies coloured as a dove, <br />A bird gold-coloured flickered far and fled <br />Over the pathless waterwaste for me; <br />And with spread hands I watched the bright bird flee <br />And waited, till before me she dropped dead. <br />O golden bird in these dove-coloured skies <br />How long I sought, how long with wearied eyes <br />I sought, O bird, the promise of thy flight! <br />And now the morn has dawned, the morn has died, <br />The day has come and gone; and once more night <br />About my lone life settles, wild and wide.<br /><br />Robert Louis Stevenson<br /><br />http://www.poemhunter.com/poem/i-am-like-one-that-for-long-days-had-sate/
