NIGHTS ON THE INDIAN OCEAN

Nights on the Indian Ocean,

Long nights of moon and foam,

When silvery Venus low in the sky

Follows the sun home.

Long nights when the mild monsoon

Is breaking south-by-west,

And when soft clouds and the singing shrouds

Make all that is seem best.

Nights on the Indian Ocean,

Long nights of space and dream,

When silent Sirius round the Pole

Swings on, with steady gleam;

When oft the pushing prow

Seems pressing where before

No prow has ever pressed — or shall

From hence forevermore.

Nights on the Indian Ocean,

Long nights — with land at last,

Dim land, dissolving the long sea-spell

Into a sudden past —

That seems as far away

As this our life shall seem

When under the shadow of death's shore

We drop its ended dream.