Two Twilights

<SPAN name="chap034"></SPAN> <h3> LOTUS EATING </h3> <p class="poem"> Come up once more before mine eyes,<br/> <SPAN STYLE="margin-left: 1em">Sweet halcyon days, warm summer sea,</SPAN><br/> Faint orange of the morning skies<br/> <SPAN STYLE="margin-left: 1em">And dark-lined shores upon the lee!</SPAN><br/> Touched with the sunrise, sea and sky<br/> All still on Memory's canvas lie:<br/> The scattered isles with India ink<br/> Dot the wide back-ground's gold and pink:<br/> Unstirring in the Sunday calm,<br/> <SPAN STYLE="margin-left: 1em">Their profile cedars, sharply drawn,</SPAN><br/> <SPAN STYLE="margin-left: 1em">Bold black against the flushing dawn,</SPAN><br/> Take shape like clumps of tropic palm.<br/> Night shadows still the distance dim<br/> (Ultra-marine) where ocean's brim<br/> Upholdeth the horizon-rim.<br/></p> <p class="poem"> Once more in thought we seem to creep<br/> <SPAN STYLE="margin-left: 1em">By lonely reefs where sea-birds scream,</SPAN><br/> Ulysses-like, along the deep<br/> <SPAN STYLE="margin-left: 1em">Borne onward in the ocean-stream.</SPAN><br/> The sea-floor spreadeth glassy still;<br/> No breath the idle sail doth fill;<br/> Our oar-blades smite the heavy seas;<br/> Under the world the morning breeze<br/> Treads with the sun the unknown ways.<br/> <SPAN STYLE="margin-left: 1em">Thus steer we o'er the solemn main</SPAN><br/> <SPAN STYLE="margin-left: 1em">Eating the Lotus-fruit again,</SPAN><br/> Dreaming that time forever stays,<br/> Singing "Where, Absence, is thy sting?"<br/> Listening to hear our echoes ring<br/> Through the far rocks where Sirens sing.<br/></p> <br/><br/><br/> <div style="break-after:column;"></div><br />