AND thou art gone, most loved, most honored friend! No, nevermore thy gentle voice shall blend With air of Earth its pure ideal tones, Binding in one, as with harmonious zones, The heart and intellect. And I no more Shall with thee gaze on that unfathomed deep, The Human Soul, as when, pushed off the shore, Our joint communion breaking with the Sun: Thy mystic bark would through the dark Richard Henry Dana THE LITTLE BEACH-BIRD THOU little bird, thou dweller by the sea, O, rather, bird, with me Through the fair land rejoice! Thy flitting form comes ghostly dim and pale, As driven by a beating storm at sea; ? Thou call'st along the sand, and haunt'st the surge, Restless and sad; as if, in strange accord With the motion and the roar Of waves that drive to shore, One spirit did ye urge The Mystery - the Word. Of thousands, thou, both sepulchre and pall, Old Ocean! A requiem o'er the dead From out thy gloomy cells A tale of mourning tells, Tells of man's woe and fall, His sinless glory fled. Then turn thee, little bird, and take thy flight Where the complaining sea shall sadness bring Thy spirit never more; Come, quit with me the shore, IMMORTALITY AND do our loves all perish with our frames ? Do those that took their root and put forth buds, And their soft leaves unfolded in the warmth |