The Gardens of the Sea
By George Sterling
Beneath the ocean's sapphire lid
We gazed far down, and who had dreamed,
Till pure and cold its treasures gleamed,
What lucent jewels there lay hid?—
Opal and jacinth, orb and shell,
Calice and filament of jade,
And fonts of malachite inlaid
With lotus and with asphodel,—
Red sparks that give the dolphin pause,
Lamps of the ocean-elf, and gems
Long lost from crystal diadems,
And veiled in shrouds of glowing gauze.
Below, the sifted sunlight passed
To twilight, where the azure blaze
Of scentless flowers from the haze
About their dim pavilions cast
Betrayed what seemed forgotten pearls,
As shimmering weeds alert with light
Enticed the half-reluctant sight
To caverns where the sea-kelp swirls.
Splendid and chill those gardens shone,
Where sound is not, and tides are winds,—
Where, fugitive, the naiad finds
Eternal autumn, hushed and lone;
Till one had said that in her bow'rs
Where mixt the nacres of the dawn,
That thence the sunset's dyes were drawn,
And there the rainbow sank its tow'rs.
Where gorgeous flowers of chrysoprase
In songless meadows bared their blooms,
The deep's unweariable looms
With shifting splendors lured the gaze.
And zoned on iridescent sands,
Pellucid glories came and went—
Silver and scarlet madly blent
In living stars and blazoned bands.
Hydras of emerald and blue
Were part of swaying tapestries
Whose woof from ivies of the seas
Stole each inquietude of hue.
And in those royal halls lay lost
The oriflammes and golden oars
Of argosies from lyric shores—
'Mid glimmering crowns and croziers tost.
And purple poppies vespertine
Glowed on the weird and sunken ledge,
Beyond whose rich, vermillion edge
Rose tentacles from shapes unseen—
Undulant bronze and glossy toils
That shuddered in the lustrous tide
And forms in restless crimson dyed
That caught the light in stealthy coils. . . .
Far down we gazed, nor dared to dream
What final sorceries would be
When in those gardens of the sea
The lilies of the moon should gleam.
Inspired by his trip to Catalina Island, off the coast of Southern California