Clinton Scollard

Moonrise by the Sea

  Over the sea-rim peered the pallid moon
    Out of a woven shroud
  Of twilight purple, while their mighty tune
    The breakers thundered loud.

  No comrade star, only the mystery
    Of that pale orb whose fire
  Through immemorial nights has seemed to be
    Fulfilled of dim desire.

  And while its wan light drenched the foam-hid coasts,
    To the low south wind's sigh
  Methought the sad innumerable hosts
    Of lovers dead went by;

  And I was whelmed with sadness, with the sense
    Of the immutable pathos of the years,
  And how the sum of all love's opulence
    Must be obscured by tears!