The Sea Of Death. - A Fragment.

-    - Methought I saw     Life swiftly treading over endless space;     And, at her foot-print, but a bygone pace,     The ocean-past, which, with increasing wave,     Swallow'd her steps like a pursuing grave.     Sad were my thoughts that anchor'd silently     On the dead waters of that passionless sea,     Unstirr'd by any touch of living breath:     Silence hung over it, and drowsy Death,     Like a gorged sea-bird, slept with folded wings     On crowded carcases - sad passive things     That wore the thin gray surface, like a veil     Over the calmness of their features pale.     And there were spring-faced cherubs that did sleep     Like water-lilies on that motionless deep,     How beautiful! with bright unruffled hair     On sleek unfretted brows, and eyes that were     Buried in marble tombs, a pale eclipse!     And smile-bedimpled cheeks, and pleasant lips,     Meekly apart, as if the soul intense     Spake out in dreams of its own innocence:     And so they lay in loveliness, and kept     The birth-night of their peace, that Life e'en wept     With very envy of their happy fronts;     For there were neighbor brows scarr'd by the brunts     Of strife and sorrowing - where Care had set     His crooked autograph, and marr'd the jet     Of glassy locks, with hollow eyes forlorn,     And lips that curl'd in bitterness and scorn -     Wretched, - as they had breathed of this world's pain,     And so bequeathed it to the world again,     Through the beholder's heart in heavy sighs.     So lay they garmented in torpid light,     Under the pall of a transparent night,     Like solemn apparitions lull'd sublime     To everlasting rest, - and with them Time     Slept, as he sleeps upon the silent face     Of a dark dial in a sunless place.