Other editions of book South Sea Idyls

Cast on the water by a careless hand,Day after day the winds persuaded me:Onward I drifted till a coral treeStayed me among its branches, where the sandGathered about me, and I slowly grew,Fed by the constant sun and the inconstant dew.The sea-birds build their nests against my root,And eye my slender body's horny case.Widowed within this solitary placeInto the thankless sea I cast my fruit;Joyless I thrive, for no man may partakeOf all the store I bear and harvest for his sake.No more I heed the kisses of the morn;The harsh winds rob me of the life they gave;I watch my tattered shadow in the wave,And hourly droop and nod my crest forlorn,While all my fibres stiffen and grow numbBeck'ning the tardy ships, the ships that never come!

THE COCOA-TREE.Cast on the water by a careless hand,Day after day the winds persuaded me:Onward I drifted till a coral treeStayed me among its branches, where the sandGathered about me, and I slowly grew,Fed by the constant sun and the inconstant dew.The sea-birds build their nests against my root,And eye my slender body's horny case.Widowed within this solitary placeInto the thankless sea I cast my fruit;Joyless I thrive, for no man may partakeOf all the store I bear and harvest for his sake.No more I heed the kisses of the morn;The harsh winds rob me of the life they gave;I watch my tattered shadow in the wave,And hourly droop and nod my crest forlorn,While all my fibres stiffen and grow numbBeck'ning the tardy ships, the ships that never come!

Excerpt from South-Sea IdylsAtlantic Monthly, and I think, now, that there are few such delicious bits of literature in the language. The rest rise up like old memories of delight graceful shapes, careless, beautiful, with a kind of undying youth in them, which I frankly told you, when we first met many years after they were writ ten, I was disappointed not to find in you. You did not retort, and of course I was not reasonable. But my words should have served to show you how fast a hold your Idyls had kept on my fancy.About the PublisherForgotten Books publishes hundreds of thousands of rare and classic books. Find more at www.forgottenbooks.comThis book is a reproduction of an important historical work. Forgotten Books uses state-of-the-art technology to digitally reconstruct the work, preserving the original format whilst repairing imperfections present in the aged copy. In rare cases, an imperfection in the original, such as a blemish or missing page, may be replicated in our edition. We do, however, repair the vast majority of imperfections successfully; any imperfections that remain are intentionally left to preserve the state of such historical works.

Excerpt:FORTY days in the great desert of the sea,—forty nights camped under cloud-canopies, with the salt dust of the waves drifting over us. Sometimes a Bedouin sail flashed for an hour upon the distant horizon, and then faded, and we were alone again; sometimes the west, at sunset, looked like a city with towers, and we bore down upon its glorified walls, seeking a haven; but a cold gray morning dispelled the illusion, and our hearts sank back into the illimitable sea, breathing a long prayer for deliverance.Once a green oasis blossomed before us,—a garden in perfect bloom, girded about with creaming waves; within its coral cincture pendulous boughs trailed in the glassy waters; from its hidden bowers spiced airs stole down upon us; above all, the triumphant palm-trees clashed their melodious branches like a chorus with cymbals; yet from the very gates of this paradise a changeful[8] current swept us onward, and the happy isle was buried in night and distance.

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A pioneering California writer, Charles Warren Stoddard (1843-1909) is best known for his homoerotic tales collected as South-Sea Idyls and The Island of Tranquil Delights. Stoddard was a member of San Francisco's Bohemian and journalistic circles, where he was appreciated for his wit. His literary friendships and lasting relationships included Ambrose Bierce, Ina Coolbrith, Bret Harte, Robert Louis Stevenson, W. D. Howells, Henry Adams, Joaquin Miller, Jack London, George Sterling, Bliss Carman, Yone Noguchi, George Cabot Lodge, and Samuel Clemens.

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