BY WINTER SEAS

BENEATII the thin edge of the watery world
The sun drops down, its wavering light is cast
On the white breakers foaming line 0n line;
The flapping wind is furled

And vanquished day retreats at last.

The frozen dunes and the wet sands resign
Their tints of purple and of gold,_

As gathering in the shadows they enfold

The silence in a seamless pall.

So move the years t0 their predestined night,
So fade the colours from the festival

Of youth’s imagining and love’s delight,

And gradually from the failing sight

The dark removes the visionary lands

Which tempt the gaze to rest on hopes afar,
Leaving beneath a solitary star

Only the narrow prospect of bleak sands.

A scream strikes through the air,
And falling at my feet from out the frigid night
A dead gull flutters, stricken in its flight,
E 54 J