THE MIST AND THE SEA

The mist crept in from the sea

Out of the void and the vast;

And it bore the silver rain

A shimmering guest in its train,

And many a murmuring strain

Of the ships that sailed in the past;

Soft as sleep's footfalls be

The mist crept in from the sea.

The mist crept in from the sea

And folded the length of the shore

In the clasp of its mothering arms

As though it would shield from harms;

And lulled were the loud alarms,

And lost was the rage and roar

Of the surge, so soothingly

The mist crept in from the sea.

The mist crept in from the sea,

White, impalpable, strange;

Pull of the wafture of wings,

Of eerie and eldritch things,

Of visions and vanishings

Ever in shift and change;

Silently, hauntingly,

The mist crept in from the sea.

The mist crept in from the sea,

And bode for a space, and then

It heard the imperious call

Of the deep, transcending all,

And it knew itself as the thrall

Of the world-old master of men,

So, still as the dreams that flee,

The mist crept back to the sea.