Starlight At Sea

OVER the murmurous choral of dim waves

The constellations glow against the soft

Ethereal dusk, —forever fair, aloft,

Serene, while man climbs painfully from caves

To cities, clamorous cities, life that raves

Like surf against the rocks. It is not oft

Our cities glimpse the stars, their luster scoffed

Away by low, hard glitter that outbraves

Night's blessing of the dark. But here upon

Mid-ocean, all whose muffled voices ring

A rapture lost to our vexed human wills,

We see the primal radiance that shone

On chaos, —see the young God shepherding

His gleaming flocks on the empurpled hills.