Classic Poem

My watch upon this sea-swept cliff is done!
I've marked for hours that slow-descending sun,
And seen him plunge into the golden swell
Of yon bright ocean that he loves so well.

I linger, watching how yon wavelets seem
To miss the glory of the vanished gleam;
And marking how yon summer-blushing blue
Takes on the sadness of the twilight hue.

How can I go? That shadowy, solemn wave
Seems like a loved one's newly-covered grave;
And all around, above me, seems to move
The joy and grief of unforgotten love.

I linger o'er the long wave's darkening flow;
But the cold sea-moan bids me rise and go;
And yon faint sun-glow on the quivering main
Says, Go, to-morrow we shall meet again.

It may be we shall meet as we have done,
And that I greet once more yon matchless sun;
It may be that I come to gaze again
On the pale splendour of yon purple plain.

But tho' no dawn should light these faded skies,
Though yon expected sun should never rise,
I have a Sun whose everlasting gold
Lights up a day that never shall grow old.

I have a Sun within, a Sun above,
A heaven whose radiance is the joy of love.
Earth's suns may sink and rise again no more,
I need them not in that unchanging shore.

I go where night and darkness never come,
To the dear day-spring of a sinless home;
No pensive musings such as sunset brings!
No bitter heartache over dried-up springs!

This shore I quit, these rocks, this wondrous sea,
Of all things great the greatest still to me;
These golden gleams of sunset's lingering bliss,
Yon far-off dimple from the dying kiss

Of wave and sky; this gentle, gentle song
Of the lone sea-breeze as it sighs along;
The sweet low ripple-note that comes and goes
From yon grey sand-slope where the tide still flows.

These, these I leave; yet, leaving, turn again
To love and muse, yet feel no parting pain;—
These are but withered leaves, the goodly tree
Which bears them all remaineth yet for me.

I need not miss the starbeam, if the star
Abideth still to shine in love afar;
The gift may fade, the Giver still is mine,
With all his love and light and grace divine.