The Swimmer's Race

Between the clover and the trembling seaThey stand upon the golden-shadowed shoreIn naked boyish beauty, a strenuous three,Hearing the breakers' deep Olympic roar;Three young athletes poised on a forward limb,Mirrored like marble in the smooth wet sand,Three statues moulded by Praxiteles:The blue horizon rimRecedes, recedes upon a lovelier land,And England melts into the skies of Greece.

The dome of heaven is like one drop of dew,Quivering and clear and cloudless but for oneCrisp bouldered Alpine range that blinds the blueWith snowy gorges glittering to the sun:Forward the runners lean, with outstretched handWaiting the word--ah, how the light relievesThe silken rippling muscles as they startSpurning the yellow sand,Then skimming lightlier till the goal receivesThe winner, head thrown back and lips apart.

Now at the sea-marge on the sand they lieAt rest for a moment, panting as they breathe,And gazing upward at the unbounded skyWhile the sand nestles round them from beneath;And in their hands they gather up the goldAnd through their fingers let it lazily streamOver them, dusking all their limbs' fair white,Blotting their shape and mould,Till, mixed into the distant gazer's dreamOf earth and heaven, they seem to sink from sight.

But one, in seeming petulance, oppressedWith heat has cast his brown young body free:With arms behind his head and heaving breastHe lies and gazes at the cool bright sea;So young Leander might when in the noonHe panted for the starry eyes of eveAnd whispered o'er the waste of wandering waves,"Hero, bid night come soon!"Nor knew the nymphs were waiting to receiveAnd kiss his pale limbs in their cold sea-caves.

Now to their feet they leap and, with a shout,Plunge through the glittering breakers without fear,Breast the green-arching billows, and still out,As if each dreamed the arms of Hero near;Now like three sunbeams on an emerald crest,Now like three foam-flakes melting out of sight,They are blent with all the glory of all the sea;One with the golden West;Merged in a myriad waves of mystic lightAs life is lost in immortality.