Poetry Explorer- Classic Contemporary Poetry, SALT AND SUNNY DAYS, by PHILIP BOURKE MARSTON


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Classic and Contemporary Poetry

SALT AND SUNNY DAYS, by                     Poet's Biography
First Line: Oh, silent glory of the summer day!
Last Line: And beats and blinds the following wind with spray!
Subject(s): Sea; Ocean


OH, silent glory of the summer day!
How, then, we watched with glad and indolent eyes
The white-sailed ships dream on their shining way,
Till, fading, they were mingled with the skies.
Have we not watched her, too, on nights that steep
The soul in peace of moonlight, softly move
As a most passionate maiden, who in sleep
Laughs low, and tosses in a dream of love?

And when the heat broke up, and in its place,
Came the strong, shouting days and nights, that run,
All white with stars, across the labouring ways
Of billows warm with storm, instead of sun,
In gray and desolate twilights, when no feet
Save ours might dare the shore, did we not come
Through winds that all in vain against us beat
Until we had the warm sweet-smelling foam

Full in our faces, and the frantic wind
Shrieked round us, and our cheeks grew numb, then warm,
Until we felt our souls, no more confined,
Mix with the waves, and strain against the storm?
Oh! the immense, illimitable delight
It is, to stand by some tempestuous bay,
What time the great sea waxes warm and white
And beats and blinds the following wind with spray!





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