Interleaves
The World of Waters
“The sea has the sun for a harper.” She has also among her myriad worshippers Swinburne, the poet-harpist, who sweeps all the strings of his noble instrument in her praise.
There can be no worthier introduction to a group of sea-poems than lines “all gold seven times refined,” selected almost at random from a great poet whom you will be glad to read later on.
“Green earth has her sons and her daughters,
And these have their guerdons; but we
Are the wind’s and the sun’s and the water’s,
Elect of the sea.”
“She is pure as the wind and the sun,
And her sweetness endureth forever.”
“For the wind, with his wings half open, at pause
in the sky, neither fettered nor free,
Leans waveward and flutters the ripple to laughter!”
“But for hours upon hours
As a thrall she remains
Spell-bound as with flowers
And content in their chains,
And her loud steeds fret not, and lift not a lock
of their deep white manes.”
“And all the rippling green grew royal gold
Between him and the far sun’s rising rim.”
“Where the horn of the headland is sharper
And her green floor glitters with fire,
The sea has the sun for a harper,
The sun has the sea for a lyre.”
“The waves are a pavement of amber,
By the feet of the sea-winds trod,
To receive in a god’s presence-chamber
Our father, the God.”