Affectionately Inscribed to M. E. H

How joyously the young sea-mewLay dreaming on the waters blueWhereon our little bark had thrownA little shade, the only one,But shadows ever man pursue.

Familiar with the waves and freeAs if their own white foam were he,His heart upon the heart of oceanLay learning all its mystic motion,And throbbing to the throbbing sea.

And such a brightness in his eyeAs if the ocean and the skyWithin him had lit up and nurstA soul God gave him not at first,To comprehend their majesty.

We were not cruel, yet did sunderHis white wing from the blue waves under,And bound it, while his fearless eyesShone up to ours in calm surprise,As deeming us some ocean wonder.

We bore our ocean bird untoA grassy place where he might viewThe flowers that curtsey to the bees,The waving of the tall green trees,The falling of the silver dew.

But flowers of earth were pale to himWho had seen the rainbow fishes swim;And when earth's dew around him layHe thought of ocean's winged spray,And his eye waxed sad and dim.

The green trees round him only madeA prison with their darksome shade;And drooped his wing, and mourned heFor his own boundless glittering sea--Albeit he knew not they could fade.

Then One her gladsome face did bring,Her gentle voice's murmuring,In ocean's stead his heart to moveAnd teach him what was human love:He thought it a strange, mournful thing.

He lay down in his grief to die,(First looking to the sea-like skyThat hath no waves) because, alas!Our human touch did on him pass,And, with our touch, our agony.