Poems (Schiller)/Beautiful sea

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Later Poems

BEAUTIFUL SEA
Beautiful sea, so deep and wide,Many bright gems thy waters hide;Shells of every form and hueLie hidden beneath thy waters blue,
Bright is the gleam of thy snow-capped waves;Ah! who would dream that myriad gravesPave thy low streets, and fair human locks,Entwine with the Algae that deck thy dark rocks?
Wild are the tales thy dark grottoes could tell,How the coy mermaids with treacherous spellWoo the unwary down to their last sleep'Mid the coralline beds of the beauteous deep.
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Many an argosy, rich with the weightOf wealth untold, and the precious freightOf human life, has sailed from shoreAnd sunk 'neath thy waves to rise no more.
Beautiful sea! when the storm rages high,Beautiful still, when calm as the sky,And yet more beautiful when the moonbeamsImpart to thy waves their silvery gleams.
Beautiful sea! we must bid thee farewell,When we ascend with immortals to dwell;For in that land where spreads the Life-tree,One hath foretold there shall be no more sea.[1]October 21, 1869.
  1. ↑ Revelations 21: 1.
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