Classic Poem

She was like no other one
All the parish round;
In her soul were sea and sun,
In her laugh the sound
Of swift waves on shell-strewn sands
Never man hath found.

Father, mother, none she knew.
On the beach one day
All amazed, a fisher crew
Found a child at play,
Lithe and white and wild, with hair
Gemmed with sun-dried spray.

So they taught their speech to her,
So she grew apace,
In her voice the sea-winds stir.
Like a curved wave's grace
Moved her slender form, the sea's
Beauty seemed her face.

Not a lad the parish round
But when she drew nigh
Flung hiSheart upon the ground
For her feet to try;
Not a lad the parish round
Gained her smile thereby.

Not for her their prayers and sighs.
Long day after day,
From sun rising to moonrise,
Still her feet would stray
Where the wild sea beckoned her
In its combers play.

Only one who, day by day,
Followed her again;
One with eyes of stormy grey,
Passionate with pain
Of that love despised, that burned
Hot through heart and brain.

On the cliff that taunts the mad
Waves that leap to it,
So they met there, maid and lad,
Oh, a trysting fit!
Red the great moon rose — as some
Torch the furies lit.

Still she mocked him fearlessly,
Said him still the same,
" None I love but this my sea, "
Till the madness came —
In the hungry eyes of him
Like the red moon's flame.

" In your lover's arms this night
Lie you then, " quoth he.
Hand of brown on throat of white,
Swiftly, silently,
Down her lithe young body flashed,
Down into the sea.

Know you what he saw who leant,
Maddened through and through?
Sudden waves that curved and bent
As strong arms might do
When they draw the bride beloved
To a heart thrice true.

Know you what he heard, who so
Crouched there, hate-possessed?
Laughter tremulous and low,
E'en that laughter blest
Of the happy bride who lies
On her lover's breast.

She was like no other one
All the parish round;
In her soul were sea and sun,
In her laugh the sound
Of swift waves on shell-strewn sands
Never man hath found.