by Percy Boyd.
Originally published in Ainsworth's Magazine: A Miscellany of Romance (Chapman and Hall) vol.10 #1 (1847).
From the German of J. Muller.
There floats a sound far o'er the deep sea ringing,
Of bells at evening with a soft low chime,
Strange tidings of a Wonder-City bringing,
'Neath its wave whelm'd in the olden time.
And though the tide of ocean ever streaming
Washes the place of that old city's grave,
Its golden battlements are still seen gleaming
At evening, mirror'd in the lighted wave.
And once the boatman who has seen them glisten
In the clear twilight with enchanted ray,
He lingers spell-bound for their voice, to listen
Though rocks rise threat'ning in his homeward way.
Thus to the heart, like those sweet chimes, comes often
A strange sad voice from Memory's phantom shore,
And wayward thoughts the dreamer's vision soften,
Of love long vanish'd—to return no more.
The faded ruins of a world once splendid,
Now deeply buried in the past dim sea,
With thoughts and hopes that long ago seem'd ended
In dreams of midnight, rise again to me.
Beneath the ray which memory's light was flinging,
I long to vanish in those dim waves' foam,
And angel voices to my spirit singing,
Call me to the old Wonder City home.