Beside the Idle Summer Sea
BESIDE the idle summer seaAnd in the vacant summer days,Light Love came fluting down the ways,Where you were loitering with me.
Who has not welcomed, even as we,That jocund minstrel and his laysBeside the idle summer seaAnd in the vacant summer days?
We listened, we were fancy-free;And lo! in terror and amazeWe stood alone—alone at gazeWith an implacable memoryBeside the idle summer sea.
I. M.R. G. C. B.1878
THE ways of Death are soothing and serene,And all the words of Death are grave and sweet.From camp and church, the fireside and the street,She beckons forth—and strife and song have been.
A summer night descending cool and greenAnd dark on daytime’s dust and stress and heat,The ways of Death are soothing and serene,And all the words of Death are grave and sweet.
O glad and sorrowful, with triumphant mienAnd radiant faces look upon, and greetThis last of all your lovers, and to meetHer kiss, the Comforter’s, your spirit lean …The ways of Death are soothing and serene.