Page:The complete poems of Paul Laurence Dunbar.pdf/47

 
 * From the silent deep
 * The waters Sweep,

But faint on the cold white stones,
 * And the wavelets fly
 * With a plaintive cry

O'er the old earth's bare, bleak bones.


 * And the spray upsprings
 * On its ghost-white wings,

And tosses a kiss at the stars;
 * While a water-sprite,
 * In sea-pearls dight,

Hums a sea-hymn's solemn bars.


 * Far out in the night,
 * On the wavering sight

I see a dark hull loom;
 * And its light on high,
 * Like a Cyclops' eye,

Shines out through the mist and gloom.


 * Now the winds well up
 * From the earth's deep cup,

And fall on the sea and shore,
 * And against the pier
 * The waters rear

And break with a sullen roar.


 * Up comes the gale,
 * And the mist-wrought veil

Gives way to the lightning's glare,
 * And the cloud-drifts fall,
 * A sombre pall,

O'er water, earth, and air.


 * The storm-king flies,
 * His whip he plies,

And bellows down the wind.
 * The lightning rash
 * With blinding flash

Comes pricking on behind.


 * Rise, waters, rise,
 * And taunt the skies

With your swift-flitting form.
 * Sweep, wild winds, sweep,
 * And tear the deep

To atoms in the storm.


 * And the waters leapt,
 * And the wild winds swept,

And blew out the moon in the sky,
 * And I laughed with glee,
 * It was joy to me

As the storm went raging by!

river sleeps beneath the sky,
 * And clasps the shadows to its breast;

The crescent moon shines dim on high;
 * And in the lately radiant west
 * The gold is fading into gray.
 * Now stills the lark his festive lay,
 * And mourns with me the dying day.

While in the south the first faint star
 * Lifts to the night its silver face,