fresh new life that we associate with dawn.

Among descriptions to which reference has not already been made the

following should be noted: An Autumn Vision, 12, the opening lines of A Swimmer's Dream, which are, some way, unspeakably lovely, the first lines of the Sunbows (A Midsummer Holiday) which are almost as good, and the first line of

A Wasted Vigil,

"Dawn skims the sea with flying feet of gold."

Earth and sky are less frequently brought into personal relationship with the sea, but we have the following:

"The live wave's love for the shore,

The shore's for the wave as it dies.

Triads, III.2;

"The large deep love of living sea and land."
Tristram of Lyonesse, 8;

and we are told that the earth is worth the clasp and kiss
and wedlock of the sea." (In the Bay); we have also in On the
South Coast, the fine line about "the radiant air and water
here by the twilight wed", and the equally fine line about
"the sea's thrill toward a kindling star." (Lines to Sir
Richard F. Burton)

Swinburne often gives to the sea the features and the attributes of a person; she has lips, face, heart: "thy salt lips" (Ex Voto), "the blown wet face of the sea" (Song in Time

of Order), "the love of the heart of the sea" (Les Casquets);

the sea has kisses and caresses for her lovers, as

the

clasp and kiss of the sea (In the Bay); and the sea's kiss was keen upon my lips" (Bothnell, Act II.sc.6 );

"Thy sweet hard kisses are strong like wine,

Thy hard embraces are keen like pain."

The Triumph of Time.

The poet often speaks of the sea in the gentle caressing manner we employ towards those we love; she is "pale and sweet as a dream's delight" (A Swimmer's Dream); we have "the tender sea" (Un the Cliffs), its "soft loose curl" (Chastelard, Act I.sc.2); again we have the sweet sea repeatedly and "the most wild sweet wave in all the world" (Tristram of Lyonesse,8), and the exquisite line, "The soft light went out of all its face", (Ibid, I.). Soft is a common adjective (Loch Torridon, The Armada, etc.), but upon no attribute does the poet place more emphasis than upon the joyousness of the sea; it is seldom sad; glue, delight, joy, rapture, are some of the words used to express its moods, while its most, frequent voice is that of laughter, but to that point this chapter will return when considering the element of sound. In general the life of te sea is as the life of man; the strongest expression of this feeling is in By the North Sea V,I,

"And the joy of her heart's own choice is

As ours and as ours her pain

As the thoughts of our hearts are her voices

And as hers is the pulse of our vein."

But the sea is also, though less frequently by far, cruel, fierce, grim, hungry, fain of prey; there are epithets most common in storm-passages and sometimes suggest to me, though perhaps unreasonably, the horrible type of woman that Swinburne chose to portray in some of his early works; the most extended instance occurs in By the North Sea.

Reference has already been made to the poet's association of freedom with the sea, which is his type of that which is wholly and absolutely free:

"Song thy name was freedom, seeing thy strength was born of breeze and brine." Ballad at Parting;

"No slave may love them, no,not one.

That loves not freedom more,

And the more for thy sake loves her, and for hers

Thee."

Garden of Cymodo ce;

It is only free souls that can discern the sacred spaces of the sea (Prelude of Songs before Sunrise), and the benedic

tion in A Child's Future reads,

"England and liberty, bless you and keep you to be