Classic Poem

Wide sweeps of gold, that stream along the sea
To where blue water meets the azure sky,
And break in radiant gems, that floating lie
Upon the waves: a bird that flies a-lee,
With all the ocean's vastness to him free;
A tall, white sail, that tells the searching eye
Of fellow mortals who are drawing nigh;
White crests, that full of changing glories be;
And in the west, a mass of clouds, that rise
Fringed with the amber light, that through their rifts
Comes in broad columns; while, like shadows dark,
The sea-weed from a reef that far off lies,
Through the cool silence of the water drifts,
Fathoms below the swift keel of our bark.