Page:Poems Denver.djvu/78

Far out into the ocean; could not he
Gain footing there, and seated on its verge,
Think over his success and smile to think,
That none was there, a witness to the feat?

'Twas for a moment only, and his eye
Turned with an eager and remorseful gaze
To the far distance, where he last had marked
The wanderer of the ocean. Anxiously
He scanned the foamy crest of every wave,
And found her not. She was no longer there.
No more her tapering spars would greet his eyes,
Or white sails flutter in the morning-breeze
Above his bead; no more the merry song
Of the glad sailor-boy would thrill his heart,
No more his comrades' voices fill his ear!
She was no longer there!
        Wildly his glance
Swept the expanse of ocean! could it be,
She would no more return?
          The night came down,
With noiseless footsteps from her upper throne,
And folded to her bosom silently,
The tranquil island and the heaving sea.
The young stars one by one, came forth to gaze,
Upon their beauty mirrored in the deep,
And rock themselves to sleep upon her breast.
Yet sound of lulling waters, nor the watch
Of vigil stars, brought slumber to the eyes,
Of him, who watched with an untiring gaze