Time & Brevity

Ebbtide at Sundown

by Michael Field 1846–1914 (Bradley) and 1862–1913 (Cooper)

From A Selection from the Poems of Michael Field (1923)

Time & Brevity

O larger is remembrance than desire!
O deeper than all longing is regret!
The tide is gone, the sands are rippled yet;
The sun is gone: the hills are lifted higher.
Created with rose. Ah, why should we require
Sight of the sea, the sun? The sands are wet.
And in their glassy flaws huge record set
Of the ebbed stream, the little ball of fire.
Gone, they are gone! But oh, so freshly gone.
So rich in vanishing we ask not where —
So close upon us is the bliss that shone.
And oh, so thickly it impregns the air!
Closer in beating heart we could not be
To the sunk sun, the far, surrendered sea.

✦ ✦ ✦

From Wild Honey, as marked in the 1923 Selection.

MLA

Field, Michael. “Ebbtide at Sundown.” Poetry Codex, poetrycodex.com/poem/field_m/144/.

Chicago

Field, Michael. “Ebbtide at Sundown.” Poetry Codex. https://poetrycodex.com/poem/field_m/144/.

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More by Michael Field