On the Beach

Night, a grey sky, a ghostly sea,
     The soft beginning of the rain:
     Black on the horizon, sails that wane
Into the distance mistily.

The tide is rising, I can hear
     The soft roar broadening far along;
It cries and murmurs in my car
     A sleepy old forgotten song.

Softly the stealthy night descends,
     The black sails fade into the sky:
Is this not, where the sea-line ends,
     The shore-line of infinity?

I cannot think or dream: the grey
     Unending waste of sea and night,
     Dull, impotently infinite,
Blots out the very hope of day.