Songs of the Sea Children

by Bliss Carman

 

III

 
Thou art the sense and semblance
Of things that never were,
The meaning of a sunset,
The tenor of a star.

Thou art the trend of morning,
5
The burden of June's prime,
The twilight's consolation,
The innocence of time.

Thou art the phrase for gladness
God coined when he was young,
10
The fare-thee-well to sadness
By stars of morning sung,

The lyric revelation 
To rally and rebuoy 
The darker earth's half sinking 
15

Temerity of joy.

Out of the hush and hearkening
Of the reverberant sea, 
Some happier golden April 
Might fashion things like thee.
20


Or if one heart-beat faltered
In oblivion's drum-roll, 
That perfect idle moment 
Might be thy joyous soul.

And the long waves of sorrow
25
Will search and find no shore
In all the seas of being, 
When thou shalt be no more.