The Gardens Of The Sea

Beneath the ocean’s sapphire lid We gazed far down, and who had dreamed, Till pure and cold its treasures gleamed, What lucent jewels there lay hid?--

Opal and jacinth, orb and shell, Calice and filament of jade, And fonts of malachite inlaid With lotus and with asphodel,--

Red sparks that give the dolphin pause, Lamps of the ocean-elf, and gems Long lost from crystal diadems, And veiled in shrouds of glowing gauze.

Below, the sifted sunlight passed To twilight, where the azure blaze Of scentless flowers from the haze About their dim pavilions cast

Betrayed what seemed forgotten pearls, As shimmering weeds alert with light Enticed the half-reluctant sight To caverns where the sea-kelp swirls.

Splendid and chill those gardens shone, Where sound is not, and tides are winds,-- Where, fugitive, the naiad finds Eternal autumn, hushed and lone;

Till one had said that in her bow’rs Were mixt the nacres of the dawn, That thence the sunset’s dyes were drawn, And there the rainbow sank its tow’rs.