THE SEA-GARDENS OF SANTA CATALINA
Lightly let the boat go drifting,
Neither hand nor oar uplifting,
Let no motion fret the ocean, and no sail be now unfurled;
Stranger than Aladdin’s story,
Lo, the dream-surpassing glory
And the marvel unimagined of the limpid underworld!
Gaze within the magic mirror
Of the water, crystal clearer
Than the gleaming glass enchanted, made by Merlin’s sorcery
And behold the secrets hidden
Through the ages, till unbidden
Sons of men came sailing, sailing down the blue Pacific sea.
See the pearl-encrusted portals
Of the caverns, wherein mortals
Dare not pierce with earthly vision, dare not fare with feet profane;
Coral-columned halls with golden
Thrones in emerald deeps withholden,
Lit with sparkling amber splendor, where the merry mermen reign.
See the long kelp banners flying
From their gardens underlying
All the rare, transparent surface of this sunny, southern sea;
Grasses, shot with silver spangles,
Wreathed and caught in starry tangles
Of the purple ocean-pansy and the fringed anemone.
And the brilliant sea-weeds scattered
Like a gay mosaic shattered
In a million shining fragments over all the ocean floor;
While the bright-hued fish go darting
In swift journeys, meeting, parting,
Weaving gold and scarlet patterns through the water evermore.
Through the light that throbs and quivers
Down the depths, and breaks and shivers
Into splintered flakes of brightness, that so melt and interfuse
Into all such strangest ranges
Of translucent color changes,
That the eye is thrilled, bewildered, with their rare enchanting hues.
—Ah, would thus upon the gleaming
Southern sea, in happy dreaming,
We might drift and drift forever! never shoreward guide the keel!
Azure skies, forever smiling,
Into visions sweet beguiling,
And beneath our boat the splendor of those rosy dreams made real!
TRANSCRIBER’S NOTE:
Original spelling, hyphenation and punctuation have been kept unchanged.