Bright skies of summer o’er the deep, <br />And soft salt air along the land, <br />The blue wave, lisping in its sleep, <br />Sinks gently on the yellow sand; <br />And gray-winged seagulls slowly sweep <br />O’er scattered bush and white-limbed tree <br />Where the red cliffs like bastions stand <br />To front the salvos of the sea, <br />Now lulled by its own melody. <br />Yonder the rising waters ride, <br />O’er ironstone masses, celled and worn; <br />There, gnarled and bent by wind and tide, <br />A single mangrove stands forlorn, <br />Alone in melancholy pride <br />A symbol of the soul of man <br />In Life’s wild surges tossed and torn, <br />That yearns amid the battle’s van <br />For the vast good it may not scan. <br /> <br />Along this silent shining sand <br />Come, brother of my heart, with me, <br />Tho’ I have never felt thine hand <br />And tho’ thine eyes I ne’er may see, <br />Yet somewhere or by sea or land <br />Thine heart and mine keep equal beat, <br />And in Life’s strange eternity <br />Responsive souls perchance may meet, <br />And know each other ere they greet. <br /> <br />Begone regret and carking care <br />That to the murky world belong <br />The chimes of earth and sea and air <br />Ring softened here to elfin song. <br />Come, friend of solitude, to where <br />The low dark jetty meets the blaze <br />Of sky and waters slumbering long, <br />Here let us dream while ocean plays <br />The mystic chants of golden days.<br /><br />George Essex Evans<br /><br />http://www.poemhunter.com/poem/by-the-sea-16/
