Canto 9The Sea at Night
Book 3. Part Three - Baroda and Bengal Circa 1900 – 1909
Poems from Ahana and Other Poems
A Child’s Imagination
O thou golden image,
Miniature of bliss,
5Speaking sweetly, speaking meetly!
Every word deserves a kiss.
Strange, remote and splendid
Childhood’s fancy pure
Thrills to thoughts we cannot fathom,
10Quick felicities obscure.
When the eyes grow solemn
Laughter fades away,
Nature of her mighty childhood
Recollects the Titan play;
15Woodlands touched by sunlight
Where the elves abode,
Giant meetings, Titan greetings,
Fancies of a youthful God.
These are coming on thee
20In thy secret thought;
God remembers in thy bosom
All the wonders that He wrought.
The Sea at Night
The grey sea creeps half-visible, half-hushed,
25And grasps with its innumerable hands
These silent walls. I see beyond a rough
Glimmering infinity, I feel the wash
And hear the sibilation of the waves