Sea View

Sunlight catches a wall,

It glows, and I recall

Ten years ago our walk,

And how we sat to stare,

Quite happy not to talk,

Blown by the mild sea-air:

The bench in wind and sun

Above the pearl-grey sea,

Perched on the broken cliff,

The joy, the strange fragility—

Precarious, conscious, pleased—

The youth in everything,

Sweet, and yet not appeased

By all our love could bring.

And then the sunny quay,

The ferry churning clear,

Gulls idling on the sea,

And there along the pier

The little trundling train!

No doubt it trundles on,

As I do, but again

Grown sad that you are gone.