[Editor: This poem by Barcroft Boake was published in Where the Dead Men Lie and Other Poems (1897).]
A Song
I’ve a kiss from a warmer lover
Than maiden of earth can be:
She blew it up to the skies above her,
And now it has come to me:
From the far-away it has come to-day
With a breath of the old salt sea.
She lay and laughed on a lazy billow,
Far away on the deep,
Who had gathered the froth for my lady’s pillow —
Gathered a sparkling heap;
And the ocean’s cry was the lullaby
That cradled my love to sleep.
Far away on the blue Pacific
There doth my lady roam,
That is oft-times gay, but as oft terrific:
Her jewels are beads of foam:
In a coral cave, where a blue-green wave
Keeps guard, is my lady’s home.
She claps her hands, and her henchman hurries
West on the sunset sheen:
’Tis he who comes when a mist-wrack scurries,
Skirting the deep ravine;
And my heart is stirred by the loving word
He carries me from my queen.
A drop distilled from a lotos flower —
That is the magic key
To unlock the cage, and my soul has power
To gather itself and flee,
At my love’s behest, where she waits her guest
In a palace beneath the sea.
Joy is ours that is almost anguish:
Pain that is almost sweet:
We kiss; and the ocean creatures languish
Jealously at our feet:
The sight grows dim, and the senses swim
When I and my lady greet.
There to dream, while the soul is swooning
Under a woven spell —
Hushed to sleep by her tender crooning
Learnt from the ocean swell —
There to rest on her jewelled breast,
To love and be loved as well!
Source:
Barcroft Boake, Where the Dead Men Lie and Other Poems, Sydney (NSW): Angus and Robertson, 1897, pp. 84-85
Relevant notes from the “Notes to poems” section in this book:
19. A SONG, p. 84. — Now first published.
Editor’s notes:
doth = (archaic) does
gay = happy, joyous, carefree; well-decorated, bright, attractive (in modern times it may especially refer to a homosexual, especially a male homosexual; can also refer to something which is no good, pathetic, useless)
mist-wrack = misty clouds (a “wrack” is a group of wind-blown clouds; also known as a “cloud rack” or “cloud-wrack”)
oft = (archaic) often
oft-times = (also spelt: ofttimes) oftentimes, often, on many occasions; frequently, repeatedly (from Old English, “oft” meaning “often” or “frequently”)
’tis = (archaic) a contraction of “it is”
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