As a dream's where darkness and light seem dimmer,

Touched by dawn or subdued by night.

The dark wind, stern and sublime and sad,

Swings the rollers to westward, clad

With lustrous shadow that lures the swimmer,

Lures and lulls him with dreams of light.

Light, and sleep, and delight, and wonder,

Change, and rest, and a charm of cloud,

Fill the world of the skies whereunder

Heaves and quivers and pants aloud

[Pg 161]

All the world of the waters, hoary

Now, but clothed with its own live glory,

That mates the lightning and mocks the thunder

With light more living and word more proud.

III

Far off westward, whither sets the sounding strife,

Strife more sweet than peace, of shoreless waves whose glee

Scorns the shore and loves the wind that leaves them free,

Strange as sleep and pale as death and fair as life,

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