Page:A Treasury of South African Poetry.djvu/275

 MARGUERITE. of the moonlight, cradled in foam,
 * Deep beneath Oman's waters

A pearl lay nestled within its home;
 * Where the laughter of the sea-nymph's daughters

Came ringing along through the rock-roofed caves
 * Which they made their gladsome dwelling,

And shivered the crests of the wind-swept waves
 * That over their heads were swelling.

Down where the twilight is misty and green,
 * Where the gold sands cradle the amber,

Where the richest gems of the main are seen
 * And the snaky sea-weeds clamber;

Where the sea-shells sing the songs they caught
 * When they roved on the seething billow,

Ere they laid them down, like a solemn thought,
 * To serve for the Peri's pillow;

Close lay the pearl within its shell
 * Till the hand of the diver caught it,

And, tearing it forth from its natal cell,
 * To the glare of the daylight brought it.

Snatched from the home of its magic birth,
 * While the waters sobbed their sadness,

The song of the Peris rose to earth
 * From their happy homes of gladness:—