It is a fearful night; a feeble glare <br />Streams from the sick moon in the o'erclouded sky; <br />The ridgy billows, with a mighty cry, <br />Rush on the foamy beaches wild and bare; <br />No bark the madness of the waves will dare; <br />The sailors sleep; the winds are loud and high; <br />Ah, peerless Laura! for whose love I die, <br />Who gazes on thy smiles while I despair? <br />As thus, in bitterness of heart, I cried, <br />I turned, and saw my Laura, kind and bright, <br />A messenger of gladness, at my side: <br />To my poor bark she sprang with footstep light, <br />And as we furrowed Tago's heaving tide, <br />I never saw so beautiful a night.<br /><br />William Cullen Bryant<br /><br />http://www.poemhunter.com/poem/sonnet-from-the-portuguese-of-semedo/
