Classic Poem

Wind-flicked and ruddy her young body glowed
In sunny shallows, splashing them to spray;
But when on rippled silver sand she lay,
And over her the little green waves flowed,
Coldly translucent and moon-coloured showed
Her frail young beauty, as if rapt away
From all the light and laughter of the day
To some twilit, forlorn sea-god's abode.

Again into the sun with happy cry
She leapt alive and sparkling from the sea,
Sprinkling white spray against the hot blue sky,
A laughing girl … and yet I see her lie
Under a deeper tide eternally
In cold moon-coloured immortality.