SUNLIGHT ON THE SEA 



You glance aside, you doubtless think 



My homily a foolish whim, 

 'Twill soon be ended, eat and drink, 



The lights are growing dim. 



The fruit is ripe, the wine is red, 



(The sunlight fades upon the sea) ; 

 To us the absent are the dead. 



The dead to us must absent be. 

 We, too, the absent ranks must join ; 



And friends will censure and forget : 

 There's metal base in every coin ; 



Men vanish, leaving traces yet 

 Of evil, and of good behind, 



Since false notes taint the skylark's 

 hymn, 

 And dross still lurks in gold refined — 



The lights are growing dim. 



We eat or drink or e'er we die, 

 (The sunlight flushes on the sea). 



Three hundred soldiers feasted high 

 An hour before Thermopylae ; 



Leonidas pour'd out the wine 



And shouted ere he drain'd the cup, 

 93 



