On the beach

Night, a grey sky, a ghostly sea,

The soft beginning of the rain.

Black on the horizon, sails that wane

Into the distance mistily.

The tide is rising. I can hear

The soft roar broadening along;

It cries and murmurs in my ears

A sleepy old forgotten song.

Softly the stealthy night descends,

The black sails fade into the sky;

Is not this, where the sea-line ends,

The shoreline of infinity?

I cannot think or dream; the grey

Unending waste of sea and night,

Dull, impotently infinite,

Blots out the very hope of day.