The wild-winged hour that we fain would capture
⁠Falls as from heaven that its light feet clomb,
So brief, so soft, and so full the rapture
⁠Was felt that soothed me with sense of home.
To sleep, to swim, and to dream, for ever—
Such joy the vision of man saw never;
For here too soon will a dark day sever
⁠The sea-bird's wing from the sea-wave's foam.

A dream, and more than a dream, and dimmer
⁠At once and brighter than dreams that flee,
The moment's joy of the seaward swimmer
⁠Abides, remembered as truth may be.
Not all the joy and not all the glory
Must fade as leaves when the woods wax hoary;
For there the downs and the sea-banks glimmer,
⁠And here to south of them swells the sea.