Edmund Clarence Stedman, ed. (1833–1908). A Victorian Anthology, 1837–1895. 1895.
Richard Garnett 18351906The Island of Shadows
GarnettRY
Upon the seashore soon,
And watch the waves that die upon the strand,
And the immortal moon.
That clogs the breezes there,
One star suspend her solitary lamp,
High in the viewless air.
Grazing the supple sea,
And a light pinnace speeding to the shore,
And in it thou wilt be.
The eyes no longer shine,
The pale star gazes through the pallid form,
What matter? thou art mine.
No place to lay its head,
Now reigns unchallenged in the winding-sheet,
Nor fears its kindred dead.
Chasten’d, and mild it seems;
While Avarice, Envy, Jealousy, and Hate,
With them are only dreams.
Furrows the still moonlight;
The sea is merry with our plashing oar,
With our quick rudder white.
Well where our course will be;
We leave the worn-out world—is it not so?—
The uncorrupted sea
Even Slavery is free;
And careless Care on smoothest rose-leaves laid
Becomes Tranquillity.
Grim War his court doth hold,
And mumbling Superstition counts his beads,
And Avarice his gold.
Uninterrupted reign;
Where is it that one ends and one begins?
And are they one or twain?
Veil’d in a shadowy dress,
And strewn with gems more rich were they more rare,
And steep’d in balminess.
On the phantastic coast,
No grosser sound strikes the attuned ears
Than footfall of a ghost.
No murmur of a breath;
The same still image on the same still streams,
Of Love caressing Death.
Furrows the still moonlight;
The sea is merry with our plashing oar,
With our quick rudder white.