Child of Ocean
E. Dickson
Echoes, unseen
Echoes we: listen!
We cannot stay:
As dew-stars glisten
Then fade away —
Child of Ocean!
Asia.
Hark! Spirits speak. The liquid responses
Of their aerial tongues yet sound.
Pan
I hear.
Echoes
Oh, follow, follow,
As our voice recedeth
Thro' the caverns hollow,
Where the forest spreadeth;
(more distant)
Oh, follow, follow!
Thro' the caverns hollow,
As the song floats thou pursue,
Where the wild bee never flew,
Thro' the noontide darkness deep,
By the odour-breathing sleep
Of faint night-flowers, and the waves
At the fountain-lighted caves,
While our music, wild and sweet,
Mocks thy gently falling feet,
Child of Ocean!
Asia.
Shall we pursue the sound? It grows more faint
And distant.
Pan.
List! the strain floats nearer now.
Echoes
In the world unknown
Sleeps a voice unspoken;
By thy step alone
Can its rest be broken;
Child of Ocean!
Asia.
How the notes sink upon the ebbing wind!
Echoes
Oh, follow, follow!
Through the caverns hollow,
As the song floats thou pursue,
By the woodland noontide dew;
By the forests, lakes, and fountains,
Through the many-folded mountains;
To the rents, and gulfs, and chasms,
Where the Earth reposed from spasms,
On the day when He and thou
Parted, to commingle now;
Child of Ocean!