A Love By The Sea

William Ernest Henley 1849 (Gloucester) – 1903 (Woking)



Out of the starless night that covers me,
(O tribulation of the wind that rolls!)
Black as the cloud of some tremendous spell,
The susurration of the sighing sea
Sounds like the sobbing whisper of two souls
That tremble in a passion of farewell.

To the desires that trebled life in me,
(O melancholy of the wind that rolls!)
The dreams that seemed the future to foretell,
The hopes that mounted herward like the sea,
To all the sweet things sent on happy souls,
I cannot choose but bid a mute farewell.

And to the girl who was so much to me
(O lamentation of this wind that rolls!)
Since I may not the life of her compel,
Out of the night, beside the sounding sea,
Full of the love that might have blent our souls,
A sad, a last, a long, supreme farewell.

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Submitted on May 13, 2011

Modified on April 12, 2023

44 sec read
192

Quick analysis:

Scheme ABCABC ABCABC ABCABC
Closest metre Iambic pentameter
Characters 748
Words 149
Stanzas 3
Stanza Lengths 6, 6, 6

William Ernest Henley

William Ernest Henley was an English poet, critic and editor, best remembered for his 1875 poem "Invictus". more…

All William Ernest Henley poems | William Ernest Henley Books

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