Page:The story of Saville - told in numbers.djvu/62

 And beg for an alms, a dole, from her too munificent share,— She could weep in the midst of her happiness, hearing that endless prayer,— There had been a time she had walked alone by the miserly sea, she said, And for one pale pearl from its caverns dim herself had begged vainly instead; She had woven a song, a trifling strain, of that starved and insatiate time,— Would he hear the thing? she was something gifted, ’twas said, in music and rhyme.

The ocean is life and the beach
 * Is time, and days are the waves

That heavily each over each,
 * Now wild when the equinox raves,

Now languid in summer, do still
 * Curl green with the coil of a snake,

And ponderous, cruel, and chill,
 * In laughter and mockery break.

I hoped long ago that a wave
 * Might bring to me jetsam of price,—

What tapestries silken and brave,
 * What chests full of Indian spice

I fancied were destined for me 58