{"id":1482,"date":"2013-07-13T01:35:06","date_gmt":"2013-07-13T01:35:06","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/localhost\/?p=1482"},"modified":"2013-07-13T01:35:06","modified_gmt":"2013-07-13T01:35:06","slug":"09-night-by-the-sea-vol-05-collected-poems-volume-05","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/worksofthemotherandsriaurobindo.org\/index.php\/01-works-of-sri-aurobindo\/01-sabcl\/05-collected-poems-volume-05\/09-night-by-the-sea-vol-05-collected-poems-volume-05","title":{"rendered":"-09_Night by the Sea.htm"},"content":{"rendered":"
\n


\n\tNight by the Sea<\/font><\/b><\/p>\n\n\n
 <\/td>\n\n

\nLove, a moment drop thy hands; <\/p>\n

\nNight within my soul expands. <\/p>\n

\nVeil thy beauties milk-rose-fair <\/p>\n

\nIn that dark and showering hair. <\/p>\n

\nCoral kisses ravish not<\/p>\n

\nWhen the soul is tinged with thought; <\/p>\n

\nBurning looks are then forbid. <\/p>\n

\nLet each shyly-parted lid<\/p>\n

\nHover like a settling dove<\/p>\n

\nO\u2019er those deep-blue wells of Love. <\/p>\n

\nDarkness brightens; silvering flee  <\/p>\n

\nPomps of foam the driven sea. <\/p>\n

\n\n<\/p>\n

\nIn this garden\u2019s dim repose <\/p>\n

\nLighted with the burning rose, <\/p>\n

\nSoft narcissi\u2019s golden camp <\/p>\n

\nGlimmering or with rosier lamp <\/p>\n

\nCensered honeysuckle guessed <\/p>\n

\nBy the fragrance of her breast, \u2014<\/font>
\nHere where summer\u2019s hands have crowned
\nSilence in the fields of sound,
\nHere felicity should be.
\nHearken, Edith, to the sea.<\/p>\n

What a voice of grief intrudes <\/p>\n

\nOn these happy solitudes!
\nTo the wind that with him dwells <\/p>\n

\nOcean, old historian, tells
\nAll the dreadful heart of tears <\/p>\n

\nHidden in the pleasant years. <\/p>\n

\nSummer\u2019s children, what do ye <\/p>\n

\nBy the stern and cheerless sea?<\/p>\n

Not we first nor we alone <\/p>\n

\nHeard the mighty Ocean moan <\/p>\n

\nBy this treasure-house of flowers <\/p>\n

\nIn the sweet ambiguous hours. <\/p>\n

\nMany a girl\u2019s lips ruby-red<\/p>\n

\nPage -16 <\/span>\n<\/p>\n

\n\t<\/p>\n
\n\t<\/span><\/div>\n

\nWith their vernal honey fed
\nHappy mouths, and soft cheeks flushed <\/p>\n

\nWith Love\u2019s rosy sunlight blushed. <\/p>\n

\nRuddy lips of many a boy
\nBlithe discovered hills of joy <\/p>\n

\nRuby-guided through a kiss
\nTo the sweet highways of bliss.
\nHere they saw the evening still <\/p>\n

\nComing slowly from the hill
\nAnd the patient stars arise
\nTo their outposts in the skies;
\nHeard the ocean shoreward urge
\nThe speed and thunder of his surge, <\/p>\n

\nSinging heard as though a bee <\/p>\n

\nNoontide waters on the sea.
\nThese no longer. For our rose
\nIn her place they wreathed once, blows, <\/p>\n

\nAnd thy glorious garland, sweet, <\/p>\n

\nKissed not once those wandering feet. <\/p>\n

\nAll the lights of spring are ended,
\nTo the wintry haven wended.
\nBeauty\u2019s boons and nectarous leisure, <\/p>\n

\nLips, the honeycombs of pleasure, <\/p>\n

\nCheeks enrosed, Love\u2019s natal soil, <\/p>\n

\nBreasts, the ardent conqueror’s spoil, <\/p>\n

\nSpring rejects; a lovelier child
\nHis brittle fancies has beguiled.
\nO her name that to repeat
\nThan the Dorian muse more sweet <\/p>\n

\nCould the white hand more relume <\/p>\n

\nWriting and refresh the bloom
\nOf lips that used such syllables then, <\/p>\n

\nDies unloved by later men.
\nAre we more than summer flowers? <\/p>\n

\nShall a longer date be ours,
\nRose and springtime, youth and we <\/p>\n

\nBy the everlasting sea?\n<\/p>\n

\nAre they blown as legends tell <\/p>\n

\nIn the smoke and gurge of hell ?<\/p>\n

\nPage -17 <\/span>   \n<\/p>\n

\n\t<\/p>\n
\n\t<\/span><\/div>\n

\nWrithe they in relucent gyres <\/p>\n

\nO\u2019er a circle sad of fires?
\nIn what lightless groves must they <\/p>\n

\nOr unmurmuring alleys stray? <\/p>\n

\nFields no sunlight visits, streams <\/p>\n

\nWhere no happy lotus gleams? <\/p>\n

\nYet, where\u2019er their steps below, <\/p>\n

\nMemories sweet for comrades go. <\/p>\n

\nLethe\u2019s waters had their will, <\/p>\n

\nBut the soul remembers still. <\/p>\n

\nBeauty pays her boon of breath <\/p>\n

\nTo thy narrow credit, Death, <\/p>\n

\nLeaving a brief perfume; we <\/p>\n

\nPerish also by the sea.<\/p>\n

We shall lose, ah me! too soon <\/p>\n

\nLose the clear and silent moon, <\/p>\n

\nThe serenities of night
\nAnd the deeper evening light.
\nWe shall know not when the morn  <\/p>\n

\nIn the widening East is born, <\/p>\n

\nNever feel the west-wind stir, <\/p>\n

\nSpring\u2019s delightful messenger, <\/p>\n

\nNever under branches lain
\nDally with the sweet-lipped rain, <\/p>\n

\nWatch the moments of the tree,
\nNor know the sounds that tread the sea.<\/p>\n

With thy kisses chase this gloom:\u2013<\/font><\/p>\n

\nThoughts, the children of the tomb.
\nKiss me, Edith. Soon the night
\nComes and hides the happy light.
\nNature\u2019s vernal darlings dead
\nFrom new founts of life are fed. <\/p>\n

\nDawn relumes the immortal skies. <\/p>\n

\nAh! what boon for earth-closed eyes? <\/p>\n

\nLove\u2019s sweet debts are standing, sweet; <\/p>\n

\nHonied payment to complete
\nHaste \u2013<\/font> a million is to pay \u2013 <\/p>\n

\nLest too soon the allotted day <\/p>\n

\nPage -18<\/font><\/p>\n

\n

\nEnd and we oblivious keep <\/p>\n

\nDarkness and eternal sleep.
\nSee! the moon from heaven falls. <\/p>\n

\nIn thy bosom\u2019s snow-white walls <\/p>\n

\nSoftly and supremely housed
\nShut my heart up; keep it closed <\/p>\n

\nLike a rose of Indian grain,
\nLike that rose against the rain, <\/p>\n

\nClosed to all that life applauds, <\/p>\n

\nNature\u2019s perishable gauds,
\nAnd the airs that burdened be <\/p>\n

\nWith such thoughts as shake the sea.
\n                                                        \n<\/p>\n

\nA Thing Seen<\/a><\/b><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

\nShe in her garden, near the high grey wall, <\/p>\n

\nSleeping; a silver-bodied birch-tree tall
\nThat held its garments o\u2019er her wide and green <\/p>\n

\nBuilding a parapet of shade between, <\/p>\n

\nForbidding the amorous sun to look on her. <\/p>\n

\nNo fold of gracious raiment was astir.
\nThe wind walked softly; silent moved a cloud <\/p>\n

\nListening; of all the tree no leaf was loud, <\/p>\n

\nBut guarded a divine expectant hush <\/p>\n

\nThrilled by the silence of a hidden thrush. <\/p>\n

\nPage -19<\/font><\/p>\n<\/td>\n

 <\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/table>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Night by the Sea   Love, a moment drop thy hands; Night within my soul expands. Veil thy beauties milk-rose-fair In that dark and showering…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[32],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1482","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-05-collected-poems-volume-05","wpcat-32-id"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/worksofthemotherandsriaurobindo.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1482","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/worksofthemotherandsriaurobindo.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/worksofthemotherandsriaurobindo.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/worksofthemotherandsriaurobindo.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/worksofthemotherandsriaurobindo.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1482"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/worksofthemotherandsriaurobindo.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1482\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/worksofthemotherandsriaurobindo.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1482"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/worksofthemotherandsriaurobindo.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1482"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/worksofthemotherandsriaurobindo.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1482"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}