Samuel Kettell, ed. Specimens of American Poetry. 1829.
By A Dream of the OceanCharles J. Locke
A
And cried, “come, follow me”—
We glided away, on a swift moon-beam
To the brighest cave of the sea.
Bright gems were cluster’d round;
And glowing shells in the liquid air
Made melody of sound.
And quaff’d of happiness;
And wore a robe which their fairy hands
Had twined of light and bliss.
Of corals glancing bright,
And heard the pure song of the Mermaid’s love
For a star in fields of light.
The song that seem’d to wail
With the harmony soft, of the shell-tones clear,
And the surface-sighing gale.
Come o’er the distant sea;
The bright moon has vanish’d and sail’d afar,
And thou may’st come to me.
And rode the ocean foam,
And laugh’d at the lightning and thunder-shock
As they crush’d my sparry home;
And guide it back to thee,
For the moon-beam wearies and falls askance
Far e’er it gains thy sea.
All glean’d from ocean’s shores,
And sat there uttering fondest spells
’Mid howling tempest’s roars;
For coldly thou didst smile,
And I gather’d some nightshade to bind my brow,
And my heart was sad the while.
And twine in wreaths thy gleam”—
The moon sank down, the dark spread his wing,
And I woke from this lovely dream.