Page:Writings of Oscar Wilde - Volume 01.djvu/109

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VITA NUOVA.
95
VITA NUOVA.
I stood by the unvintageable seaTill the wet waves drenched face and hair with spray;The long red fires of the dying dayBurned in the west; the wind piped drearily;And to the land the clamorous gulls did flee:"Alas!" I cried, "my life is full of pain,And who can garner fruit or golden grainFrom these waste fields which travail ceaselessly!"My nets gaped wide with many a break and flawNathless I threw them as my final castInto the sea, and waited for the end.When lo! a sudden glory! and I sawThe argent splendor of white limbs ascend,And in that joy forgot my tortured past.