Shadows of evening o’er ocean are falling, And lonely, with none but his lonely soul with him, Sits there a man on the dreary strand, And looks, with death-chilly look, up on high Tow’rd the spacious, death-chilly vault of heaven, And looks on the spacious billowy main, And over the spacious billowy main Like airy sailors, his signs are floating, Returning again despondingly, For they have found fast closèd the heart Wherein they fain would anchor-- And he groans so loud, that the snowy sea-mews, Startled away from their sandy nests, Flutter around him in flocks, And he speaks unto them these laughing words: “Ye black-leggèd birds, “With snowy pinions o’er the sea fluttering, “With crooked beaks the sea-water sucking up, “And train-oily seal’s flesh devouring, “Your life is bitter as is your food! “But I, the happy one, taste nought but sweetness! “I taste the rose’s sweet exhalation, “The moonlight-nourished bride of the nightingale; “I taste, too, the sweetness of all things: “Loving and being loved! “She loves me! she loves me! the beauteous maiden! “Now stands she at home in her house’s high balcony, “And looks in the twilight abroad, o’er the highway, “And darkens, and for me doth yearn--I assure you! “In vain she looketh around and she sigheth, “And sighing descends she down to the garden, “And wanders in fragrance and moonlight, “And speaks to the flowers and telleth them “How I, the beloved one, so precious am, “So worthy of love--I assure you! “And then in bed, in slumber, in dream, “My darling form around her sports blissfully, “And then at morning at breakfast “Upon her glistening bread and butter “Sees she my countenance smiling, “And she eats it for love--I assure you!” Thus is he boasting and boasting, And betweentimes the sea-mews are screaming, Like old ironical chuckling; The mists of twilight rise up on high; Out of the violet clouds, all-gloomily, Peepeth the grass-yellow moon; High are roaring the billows of ocean, And from the depths of the high-roaring sea, Mournful as whispering gales of wind, Soundeth the song of the Oceanides, The beauteous compassionate sea-nymphs, And loudest of all the voice so enthralling Of Peleus’ spouse, the silvery-footed one, And they’re sighing and singing: