Sea Alchemy

(a Cento)

It was many and many a year ago,
in a kingdom by the sea,
I wake to sleep, and take my waking slow.
I have been here before,
but when or how I cannot tell;
my Life is measure’d by this glass, this glass.
One foot in Eden still, I stand
and look across the other land.

So it begins.

The sea is calm to-night,
the grey sea and the long black land;
and the yellow half-moon large and low,
blasted with sighs, and surrounded with tears.
A wind sways the pines,
and below
not a breath of wild air.
What in our lives is burnt
in the fire of this?
What would I give for a heart of flesh to warm me through,
instead of this heart of stone?

Many a hearth upon our dark globe sighs
had we but World enough, and Time.
Go, my songs, to the lonely and the unsatisfied,
Go, soul, the body’s guest,
Let us go hence, my songs;
Adieu, farewell earth’s bliss.
They flee from me that sometime did me seek;
I leave this
at your ear for when you wake.