A void, a wild and drear eclipse.

A sadder sweetness than before

Shook her pale, smiling lips;

She waved adieu through vapours hoar,

And vanished in the shadows frore

Among the heedless ships ...

In that dread lapse of all farewell

The spirit, listening, plain could tell

That devils laughed in drifting hell

With guile upon their lips ...

The world seemed all a hollow ghost

That would dissolve away;

And life itself a random boast

Of elements at play;

And time a swift elusive gleam,

And man the mockery of a dream,

A foam-bell to a moment's beam

Flung from the spray.

I had worshipped her with sacred sighs,

Loved with the love that wondereth;

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