When the decks were very silent And the lights along the beach Flared and flickered in the nightwinds Blowing down the open reach— When the blazing fires before us Shewed the toilers on their ships, Then it was my heart found utterance Thro' the channel of my lips. Then it was I told you all things In the pallid moon's eclipse, While the harbour breeze sighed softly In the rigging of the ships. From the cynical half speeches, In the sunlight on the Bay, To the whispers in the Harbour What a gulf between them lay. From the time I met you lightly Half in pleasure, half in scorn, To the time we watched the night-jar And I knew my love was born. I have merited derision You were right to give me scorn. But it may be — since at first Love was not, but rather scorn, Since we knew the best and worst Of each other truthfully Long before our Love was born. It may be that for a year We shall hold each other dear, Till remembrance grows less clear, Till our idyl of the sea Is a misty memory. And we murmur — was it so We two loved so long ago.
For the devil that was in your heart — called out to the devil in mine And the stars were silent above, as the steamers furrowed the sea — And the sound of our voices was drowned in the noise of the troubled brine And our faces were shrouded from sight by the night's obscurity.
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