The Project Gutenberg eBook of Drifting

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Title : Drifting

Author : Thomas Buchanan Read

Illustrator : Lizbeth Bullock Humphrey

Release date : April 14, 2014 [eBook #45383]

Language : English

Credits : Produced by David Widger from page images generously
provided by the Internet Archive

*** START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK DRIFTING ***

  








DRIFTING

By T. Buchanan Read.

Illustrated

From Designs By Miss L. B. Humphrey

Philadelphia:

J. B. Lippincott & Co.

1881.







DRIFTING.



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M Y soul to-day

Is far away

Sailing the Vesuvian Bay;

My wingéd boat,

A bird afloat,

Swims round the purple peaks remote:—


R OUND purple peaks

It sails, and seeks

Blue inlets and their crystal creeks,

Where high rocks throw,

Through deeps below,

A duplicated golden glow.




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F AR, vague, and dim,

The mountains swim;

While on Vesuvius' misty brim,

With outstretched hands,

The gray smoke stands

O'erlooking the volcanic lands.


I N lofty lines,

'Mid palms and pines,

And olives, aloes, elms, and vines,

Sorrento swings

On sunset wings,

Where Tasso's spirit soars and sings.




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I HEED not, if

My rippling skiff

Float swift or slow from cliff to

cliff;—

With dreamful eyes

My spirit lies

Under the walls of Paradise.

Under the walls

Where swells and falls

The Bay's deep breast at intervals.




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At peace I lie,

Blown softly by,

A cloud upon this liquid sky.

The day, so mild,

Is Heaven's own child,

With Earth and Ocean reconciled;—

The airs I feel

Around me steal

Are murmuring to the murmuring keel.


O VER the rail

My hand I trail

Within the shadow of the sail,

A joy intense,

The cooling sense

Glides down my drowsy indolence.




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T HE fisher's child,

With tresses wild,

Unto the smooth, bright sand beguiled,

With glowing lips

Sings as she skips,

Or gazes at the far-off ships.




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H APPY ship,

To rise and dip,

With the blue crystal at your lip!

O happy crew,

My heart with you

anew!


N O more, no more

The worldly shore

Upbraids me with its loud uproar

With dreamful eyes

My spirit lies

Under the walls of Paradise!




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