MOONRISE BY THE SEA

Over the sea-rim peered the pallid moon

Out of a woven shroud

Of twilight purple, while their mighty tune

The breakers thundered loud.

No comrade star, only the mystery

Of that pale orb whose fire

Through immemorial nights has seemed to be

Fulfilled of dim desire.

And while its wan light drenched the foam-hid coasts,

To the low south wind's sigh

Methought the sad innumerable hosts

Of lovers dead went by;

And I was whelmed with sadness, with the sense

Of the immutable pathos of the years,

And how the sum of all love's opulence

Must be obscured by tears!