Then dulcet music swelled
Concordant with the life-strings of the soul;
It throbbed in sweet and languid beatings there,
Catching new life from transitory death;
Like the vague sighings of a wind at even
That wakes the wavelets of the slumbering sea...
---Percy Bysshe Shelley
Queen Mab: A Philosophical Poem, with Notes,
published by the author, London, 1813.
This is given by
The Oxford English Dictionary
as one of the earliest instances of the word
"wavelet".
For an instance in current poetry in this generic sense, see
Breath,
by Natascha Bruckner.
to
Quotes selected by Palle Jorgensen