At Minas Basin and Other Poems — Sea Fog

SEA FOG.

Here danced an hour ago a sapphire sea;

Now, airy nothingness, wan spaces vast, Pale draperies of the formless fog o'ercast, And wreathëd waters grey with mystery!

The ship glides like a phantom silently, As screams the white-winged gull before the mast;

Weird elemental shapes go flitting past, Which loom as giant ghosts above the quay.

The vapor lifts!

Again the sea gleams bright;

The heavens have hid within their chambers far Cloud-stuff of gossamer, from which are spun To-morrow's skyey pomps inwove with light, The belted splendors for the rising sun, And rosy curtains for the evening star.