Dawn is dim on the dark soft water,
     Soft and passionate, dark and sweet;
Love’s own self was the deep sea’s daughter,
     Fair and flawless from face to feet;
Hailed of all when the world was golden,
Loved of all lovers whose names beholden
Thrill men’s eyes as with light of olden
     Days more glad than their flight was fleet.

So they sang; but for men that love her,
     Souls that hear not her word in vain.
Earth beside her and heaven above her
     Seem but shadows that wax and wane.
Softer than sleep’s are the sea’s caresses,

Kinder than love’s that betrays and blesses.
Blither than spring’s when her flowerful tresses
     Shake forth sunlight and shine with rain.

All the strength of the waves that perish
     Swells beneath me and laughs and sighs,
Sighs for love of the life they cherish.
     Laughs to know that it lives and dies;
Dies for joy of its life, and lives,
Thrilled with joy that its brief death gives,
Death whose laugh or whose breath forgives
     Change that bids it subside and rise.

Algernon Charles Swinburne