A LOVER SPEAKS

The great white Moon is wandering over the sky,
And she sings as she goes: 't is an ancient lullaby.
The rocking sea looks up, for he hears her song,
And a dropping stillness follows the sound along.
'T is a spell for his lonely heart that she sings so low;
Stiller and stiller and stiller the billows grow,
Calmer and calmer the passionate heart of the deep;
For she croons, and croons, till she croons him away to sleep.

And I and my heart are alone by the quieted sea,
And my heart is burning and beating and wild in me:
But I know a white lady, magnetic, and lustrous, and dear,
With a tranquil and delicate voice I am starving to hear;
And I would she were singing, singing, singing so low,
Stiller and stiller and stiller my heart would grow,
My turbulent heart, with its surge, like the surge of the deep,
Would be solaced, and silenced, and sung, like the sea, to sleep.