Page:Poems, now first collected, Stedman, 1897.djvu/165

 SARGASSO WEED

from the seething Stream

To the steadfast trade-wind's courses,

Over the bright vast swirl

Of a tide from evil free,—

Where the ship has a level beam,

And the storm has spent his forces,

And the sky is a hollow pearl

Curved over a sapphire sea.

Here it floats as of old,

Beaded with gold and amber,

Sea-frond buoyed with fruit,

Sere as the yellow oak,

Long since carven and scrolled,

Of some blue-ceiled Gothic chamber

Used to the viol and lute

And the ancient belfry's stroke.

Eddying far and still

In the drift that never ceases, 145