Page:The ascent of man by Blind, Mathilde.djvu/99

 With none other for a friend or fellow
 * Those relentless footsteps were my guide

To the sea-caves echoing with the hollow
 * Immemorial moaning of the tide.

Laughed the sunlight on the living ocean,
 * Danced and rocked itself upon the spray,

And its shivered beams in twinkling motion
 * Gleamed like star-motes in the Milky Way.

Lo, beneath those waters surging, flowing,
 * I beheld the Deep's fantastic bowers;

Shapes which seemed alive and yet were growing
 * On their stalks like animated flowers.

Sentient flowers which seemed to glow and glimmer
 * Soft as ocean blush of Indian shells,

White as foam-drift in the moony shimmer
 * Of those sea-lit, wave-pavilioned dells.

Yet even here, as in the fire-eyed panther,
 * In disguise the eternal hunger lay.