Classic Poem

XXIV

We walk by Shelley's sea, upon the sands
Where he was cast, whom Air, and Earth, and Brine
Gave up to Flame — their brother more divine —
Who held him in his hundred fluttering hands;

And gaze where in the cloudless heaven stands
Carrara's jagged purple mountain line,
Snow-sprinkled, over tufted woods of pine
That stretch away in bright green sunlit bands.

The children with their sunburnt naked feet,
Ripple-pursued, with laughter and shrill cry
Play in and out, where land and water meet.

So once we thought, O Mimma, thou wouldst play;
Forgetful of how dumb the threat can lie,
As in yon guilty depths, all sun to-day.