The new moon marked the twilight hour,
A night-jar quavered eerily,
And swallows circled round the tower—
Saint Sepulchre's beside the sea.
The ivy clung, the ivy climbed,
The wilding rose twined tenderly,
And Time, the overlord, sublimed
Saint Sepulchre's beside the sea.
Below, the surge, the solemn surge,
Murmured and moaned unceasingly,
For all its golden past a dirge—
Saint Sepulchre's beside the sea.
And love and hate were here as one;
Life blent with death harmoniously;
'Twas beauty in oblivion—
Saint Sepulchre's beside the sea!