Classic Poem

By a dim seacoast, long ago,—
Since then, how years and years have sped!
We leaned and listened to the low
Sea voice and marveled what it said:
While, blown along the gusty air,
I felt the fragrance of your hair.

And sitting there, with tender tone
You sang the song that now I hear:
Sang it as you could sing alone,
Dear one, long dead and still so dear;
I could not hear that song again
Without the bliss, without the pain.

Therefore, to-night my heart is true
In the hot room: and memory's surge
Bears me straight back to youth and you,
And all the passion and the urge
Rise up once more from out the sea,
Wedding us there eternally!