George Sterling Sea Poems
- 1. The Last Days
The russet leaves of the sycamore
Lie at last on the valley floor-
By the autumn wind swept to and fro
Like ghosts in a tale of long ago.
... - 2. The Black Vulture
Aloof within the day's enormous dome,
He holds unshared the silence of the sky.
Far down his bleak, relentless eyes descry
The eagle's empire and the falcon's home-
... - 3. The Ashes In The Sea
Whither, with blue and pleading eyes,-
Whither, with cheeks that held the light
Of winter's dawn in cloudless skies,
Evadne, was thy flight?
... - 4. Spring In Carmel
O'er Carmel fields in the springtime the sea-gulls follow the plow.
White, white wings on the blue above!
White were your brow and breast, O Love!
But I cannot see you now.
... - 5. Omnium Exeunt In Mysterium
The stranger in my gates-lo! that am I,
And what my land of birth I do not know,
Nor yet the hidden land to which I go.
One may be lord of many ere he die,
... - 6. Night Sentries
Ever as sinks the day on sea or land,
Called or uncalled, you take your kindred posts.
At helm and lever, wheel and switch, you stand,
On the world's wastes and melancholy coasts.
... - 7. Kindred
Musing, between the sunset and the dark,
As Twilight in unhesitating hands
Bore from the faint horizon's underlands,
Silvern and chill, the moon's phantasmal ark,
...
