Classic Poem

I shall meet you once by day,
Where you race the rush of foam
From the passing of the ships,
Braid of samphire at your waist,
Bronze of wind for naked pride,
Pressing with impatient feet
Shadowy circles up the sand:
I shall take them from your hand
Fruits of ocean salt and sweet,
Mermaid love and seaman woe,
Danger quest and tempest home;
Bind a wreath of sun and spray;
Crush the froth against my lips;
Hold your secret fierce embraced:—
Till the movements of the tide
Surge about my heart, and flow
Singing chill from throat to knee:—
Once by day
Mine the vision of the sea!

I shall meet you once by night,
Where the wintry wrath of wind
Bends a mutiny of trees
Black against the moonlit fall:
I shall feel the river flow,
Shivering in the willow-root,
From the urgence of your arm:
I shall hear all silence call;
Join all darkness in pursuit;
Leave no loneliness unscanned:—

Till I touch your welcoming hand,
Kiss the warmth of rainbow light
From the frost-stars on your breast;
Catch you crying from the breeze;
Clasp your whiteness through the snow;
And you yield your soul confessed,
All your song of woodland charm
Sighing passion for my dream:—
Once by night
Mine the sound of wood and stream!

I shall meet you once ere death,
In the brown and lonely spaces
Where you ride the sands of storm
Headlong at the angry sun:
I shall see the red light run
Molten on each supple limb
Down the aisles of desert places,
Blazoning a burnished form
On the illusory glare:

Dust of wandering on your hair,
Evening answer in your face,
You will wait me on the rim
Where the very deserts tire
Startled into sudden ending:
I shall touch your throat of fire,
Read the measure of all space
Shadowed in your restless wings.
On the brow of time descending
When the level lights gleam low,
I shall know
All the joy of endless things!