A cloudless sky, without a bird to dot
Its pale-blue dome and opalescent base,
A waveless sea, grey-leaden, with no trace
Of human life,—white sail, or inky blot
Of the steam-saurian's panting, loud and hot,—
Nor of leviathan snorting in his place.
All round me silence and unbroken space;
All under, mystery that the sun knows not, —
The unrisen sun whose herald glories tint
The illumined east with molten chrysolite.
Not yet the couriers of fleet South Wind print
The cool deep with blue dimples, the far hint
Of her invisible coming: Life and Light,
Breathless and circumfused, pervade the infinite!
