Once a Week (magazine)/Series 1/Volume 11/By the sea

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2894583Once a Week, Series 1, Volume XI — By the sea
1864Clare FitzGerald

BY THE SEA.

I.

Stay, ye waves, one moment stay,
Rest one moment on your way.
Toss your spray upon my brow,
Let me seek your depths below.

II.

None your sovereign on our strand;
Killed alone by Unseen Hand,
Ye have wooed with placid breast
Way-worn pilgrims to your rest;

III.

Or again, with steeds of foam,
Rampant rode your ocean borne;
All resistless is your sway
Bear me in your arms away.

IV.

Oft have I listed with shut eyes
To your sea-swept melodies;
Say, what harp so sweetly strung
Echoes love your waves among?

V.

Say if flow'rets bloom to fade.
Nursed within your coral glade;
If the laughing rippling light
Sinks into crystal graves at night?

VI.

Earth to me is hard and bare,
Fair is false, and false is fair;
Love to me hath been a cheat,
A draught of gall, from chalice sweet.

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VII.

Chill your arms; yet not less chill
My life on earth, my wayward will;
Then gladly would I sleep with ye
In your deep cold tranquillity,

VIII.

Or lay me down upon your breast,
Murm'ring soft music in my rest;
Life's ling sob and struggle o'er
There I'd wait a calmer shore.

Clark.