Page:The city of dreadful night - and other poems (IA cityofdreadfulni00thomrich).pdf/104

 The Cavern-Voice hath silenced all your fears; Peace on our earth another thousand years!" On fruits and noble wine, with song's rich flow, They feasted in the sunset's golden glow; This same night thirty thousand years ago.

Ten thousand years before, ("Another ten! Good Lord, how greedy are these little men!") This place where we are sitting ("Half asleep.") Was in the sea a hundred fathoms deep: A floor of silver sand so fine and soft, A coral forest branching far aloft; Above, the great dusk emerald golden-green; Silence profound and solitude serene. Four mermaids sit beneath the coral rocks, Combing with golden combs their long green locks, And wreathing them with little pearly shells; Four mermen come from out the deep-sea dells, And whisper to them, and they all turn pale: Then through the hyaline a voice of wail, With passionate gestures, "Ever alas for woe! A rumour cometh down the Ocean-flow, A word calamitous! that we shall be All disinherited from the great sea: