LOTUS EATING

Come up once more before mine eyes,

Sweet halcyon days, warm summer sea,

Faint orange of the morning skies

And dark-lined shores upon the lee!

Touched with the sunrise, sea and sky

All still on Memory's canvas lie:

The scattered isles with India ink

Dot the wide back-ground's gold and pink:

Unstirring in the Sunday calm,

Their profile cedars, sharply drawn,

Bold black against the flushing dawn,

Take shape like clumps of tropic palm.

Night shadows still the distance dim

( Ultra-marine ) where ocean's brim

Upholdeth the horizon-rim.

Once more in thought we seem to creep

By lonely reefs where sea-birds scream,

Ulysses-like, along the deep

Borne onward in the ocean-stream.

The sea-floor spreadeth glassy still;

No breath the idle sail doth fill;

Our oar-blades smite the heavy seas;

Under the world the morning breeze

Treads with the sun the unknown ways.

Thus steer we o'er the solemn main

Eating the Lotus-fruit again,

Dreaming that time forever stays,

Singing “Where, Absence, is thy sting?”

Listening to hear our echoes ring

Through the far rocks where Sirens sing.