Classic Poem

Grey rocks, that lean against this perfect sky
And measureless expanse of silver sea;
Slow clouds of Autumn, poising calm & high
In windless depths of blue tranquility;
Thwart cedar-boughs, that show
How long & bitterly the storm-winds blow
When Winter lays his hand upon the lea;

Brown hollows, tapestried with purple plume
Of late-blown asters, golden-rod's light head;
And the pale mallow's evanescent bloom,
No sooner loosened to the light than shed;
Dark alders, close beset
With scarlet beads, & roses lingering yet
Though all your Summer sisterhood has fled,

And, O thou sea, winged with a fleet of dreams,
An argosy of longings, fairer far
Than any charmèd fishing-sail that gleams
At eventide against the sunset's bar,
When the new moon holds sway
Above the darkling spaces of the day,
And the red West shakes forth a sudden star,

Lo, to these eyes that loved you from their birth,
No dreaming isle in waters hyaline,
No happy valley of this radiant earth,
No snow-wrapt peaks that tower above the pine,
Lords of the lonely air,
Though for a crown the very dawn they wear,
With your transfiguring light shall ever shine.