Persuasion [with Biographical Introduction]

by Jane Austen

Lord Byron's "dark blue seas" could not fail of being brought forward by their present view,

Bryon’s “Childe Harold’s Pilgrimage,” Canto 2, Stanza 17 (1812): He that has sailed upon the dark blue sea Has viewed at times, I ween, a full fair sight, ​When the fresh breeze is fair as breeze may be, The white sail set, the gallant Frigate tight— Masts, spires, and strand retiring to the right, The glorious Main expanding o'er the bow, The Convoy spread like wild swans in their flight, The dullest sailer wearing bravely now— So gaily curl the waves before each dashing prow. https://en.wikisource.org/wiki/The_Works_of_Lord_Byron_(ed._Coleridge,_Prothero)/Poetry/Volume_2/Childe_Harold%27s_Pilgrimage/Canto_II