We part, and thou art mine no more! <br />I go through seas never sought before, <br />Where stars unknown to our native skies <br />Startle the mariner's watchful eyes. <br />Our bark shall over the waters sweep, <br />And rouse the children of the deep: <br />Around us, 'midst the silvery spray, <br />With glittering scales shall the dolphins play. <br />When scarcely flutters the snowy sail, <br />Gently waved by the whispering gale, <br />I shall gaze in the ocean's liquid glass, <br />And mark the hidden treasures we pass: <br />The amber and coral groves that glow <br />In the sparkling sunbeams that dart below, <br />Whose lucid and spreading boughs between <br />Countless flitting forms are seen. <br />Oh! could I beneath the billows dive, <br />And in that world of splendour live! <br />Were there a cave for thee and me <br />Beneath that bright and silent sea, <br />Which waves conceal and rocks surround, <br />Like that the Island loves found*. <br />Strange and solemn was the hour <br />That saw them reach that secret bower;— <br />Some love-lorn seamaid's deep abode, <br />Or palace of the ocean god. <br />Long had Hoonga's inmost cells <br /> Echoed to the mournful tone <br />Of the waves among the shells, <br /> And the winds that feebly moan: <br />But never to music so sad, so sweet, <br />As the vows they breathed in that lone retreat. <br />But, ah! our bark glides swiftly on, <br />And my vision of that cave is gone,<br /><br />Louisa Stuart Costello<br /><br />http://www.poemhunter.com/poem/the-adieu/
