"So passed my boyhood; 'twas a stream Of frolic flow, 'mid Nature's bowers; A ray of light--a golden dream-- A morning fair--a path of flowers! But now another charm came o'er me: The ocean I had never seen; Yet suddenly it rolled before me, With all its crested waves of green! Soft sunny islands, far and lone, Where the shy petrel builds her nest; Deep coral caves to mermaids known-- These were my visions bright and blest. Oh! how I yearned to meet the tide, And hear the bristling surges sweep; To stand the watery world beside, And ponder o'er the glorious deep! I bade my home adieu, and bent My eager footsteps toward the shore, And soon my native hills were blent, With the pale sky that arched them o'er. Four days were passed, and now I stood Upon a rock that walled the deep: Before me rolled the boundless flood, A glorious dreamer in its sleep. 'Twas summer morn, and bright as heaven; And though I wept, I was not sad, For tears, thou knowest, are often given When the overflowing heart is glad. Long, long I watched the waves, whose whirls Leaped up the rocks, their brows to kiss, And dallied with the sea-weed curls, That stooped and met, as if in bliss. Long, long I listened to the peal, That whispered from the pebbly shore, And like a spirit seemed to steal In music to my bosom's core. And now I looked afar, and thought The sea a glad and glorious thing; And fancy to my bosom brought Wild dreams upon her wizard wing-- Her wing that stretched o'er spreading waves, And chased the far-off flashing ray, Or hovering deep in twilight caves, Caught the lone mermaid at her play. IX.