By the Sea [poem by William Blocksidge (William Baylebridge)]

[Editor: This poem by William Blocksidge (also known as William Baylebridge) was published in Songs o’ the South (1908).]

By the Sea

How soft this peaceful township slumbers here,
Kissed unto dreaming by the drowsy waves!
How beautiful each ripple as it laves,
Dipped in the dyes late fall’n from heaven’s sphere!
Across the sky the golden charioteer
Doth urge his fleecy team, and stoutly braves
The cloudy hills, and floats across the caves
That fill the pathway of his proud career.
No din (for th’ offspring of the pregnant mind
The death-knell) does this witching township know:
Now shall the fullness of my heart o’erflow,
As this full peace the hidden depths can find.
O, break those shackles that conventions bind,
And taste the joys sweet Nature can bestow!

Source:
William Blocksidge, Songs o’ the South, London: Watts, 1908, p. 39

Editor’s notes:
din = a loud noise which continues for a significant amount of time, especially an unpleasant noise

fall’n = (vernacular) fallen

golden charioteer = the Sun; the god of the Sun

lave = to lap up against or wash up against

o’erflow = (archaic) overflow

th’ = (vernacular) the

doth = (archaic) does