LOW LIFE IN THE SEA. 77 



But in bright and changeful beauty shine 

 Far down in the green and glassy brine. 



.3. The floor is of sand, like the mountain's drift, 



And the pearl-shells spangle the flinty snow ; 

 From coral rocks the sea-plants lift 



Their boughs where the tides and billows flow ; 

 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. 



3. There, with its waving blade of green, 



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 ; 

 And the yellow and scarlet tufts of ocean 



Are bending, like corn on the upland lea. 



4. And life in rare and beautiful forms 



Is sporting amid those bowers of stone, 

 And is safe, when the wrathful spirit of storms 



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 the shore- 

 Then, far below in the peaceful sea, 



The purple mullet and gold-fish rove, 

 There the waters murmur tranquilly 



Through the bending twigs of the coral grove. 



Perdval. 



