| |
| DEEP in the wave is a coral grove, | |
| Where the purple mullet and gold-fish rove, | |
| Where the sea-flower spreads its leaves of blue, | |
| That never are wet with falling dew, | |
| But in bright and changeful beauty shine, | 5 |
| Far down in the green and glassy brine. | |
| The floor is of sand like the mountain drift | |
| And the pearl-shells spangle the flinty snow; | |
| From coral rocks the sea-plants lift | |
| Their boughs, where the tides and billows flow; | 10 |
| The water is calm and still below, | |
| For the winds and waves are absent there, | |
| And the sands are bright as the stars that glow | |
| In the motionless fields of upper air: | |
| There with its waving blade of green, | 15 |
| The sea-flag streams through the silent water, | |
| And the crimson leaf of the dulse is seen | |
| To blush, like a banner bathed in slaughter: | |
| There with a light and easy motion, | |
| The fan-coral sweeps through the clear, deep sea; | 20 |
| And the yellow and scarlet tufts of ocean | |
| Are bending like corn on the upland lea: | |
| And life, in rare and beautiful forms, | |
| Is sporting amid those bowers of stone, | |
| And is safe, when the wrathful spirit of storms | 25 |
| Has made the top of the wave his own: | |
| And when the ship from his fury flies, | |
| Where the myriad voices of ocean roar, | |
| When the wind-god frowns in the murky skies, | |
| And demons are waiting the wreck on shore; | 30 |
| Then far below, in the peaceful sea, | |
| The purple mullet and gold-fish rove, | |
| Where the waters murmur tranquilly, | |
| Through the bending twigs of the coral grove. | |
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