Page:Poems Hoffman.djvu/317

Gone from beach and boulder,
 Gone from bank and strand;
Waves than sunbeams colder
 Revel on the sand.

While the mad tide rages,
 I can understand
How the waves are—ages,
 And the cities—sand.

In the past are lying
 Ruins, wisely planned;
While the years are crying:
 "Cities in the sand."

While the sun is gilding
 Sea, and sky, and land,
Larger hands are building
 Cities in the sand.

PURITY

Behold it in the lilies white
 That star the stagnant mere;
Behold it in the snowflakes light
 That shroud the dying year,
And in the spotless pearl that sets
 The blackness of the cave,
And in the whitened surf that frets
 Above the midnight wave,
And in the cloud that piles its snow
 Above the canyon's gloom,
And gleams against the night below
 In towers of milk-white foam.

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