Classic Poem

Sighing—
the wind from the equator thro' the trees
faintly fell
or wander'd like a spirit ill at ease,
that we heard its echoes dying
where we lay
in our chamber by the tropic ocean's swell
night and day.
Lying—
side by side—
we heard the rising ocean to the dying wind replying
heard its surge advance with still insistent call
or subside
to the night-wind's dying fall
sighing—
thro' the night we heard it sobbing
as the tide
rose in rhythmic monotone;
till at last our twin hearts pulsed upon its ceaseless throbbing,
till we felt them fall and rise and drift asunder
leagues of night between them thrown—
O so wide!
O the wonder
that we felt but a vague and strange emotion
felt a dim and blind and infinite emotion
of the mystery, the wonder
that the night-wind and the ocean
and the traitor night should set us twain asunder
who were lying,
heart to heart,
in our love-chamber by the boundless ocean—
there were lying—
yet apart,
sunder'd by the nightly ocean
heart from heart!