| |
| THE SEA crashed over the grim gray rocks, | |
| It thundered beneath the height, | |
| It swept by reef and sandy dune, | |
| It glittered beneath the harvest moon, | |
| That bathed it in yellow light. | 5 |
| |
| Shell, and sea-weed, and sparkling stone, | |
| It flung on the golden sand. | |
| Strange relics torn from its deepest caves, | |
| Sad trophies of wild victorious waves, | |
| It scattered upon the strand. | 10 |
| |
| Spars that had looked so strong and true, | |
| At many a gallant launch, | |
| Shattered and broken, flung to the shore, | |
| While the tide in its wild triumphant roar | |
| Rang a dirge for the vessel stanch. | 15 |
| |
| Petty trifles that lovers had brought | |
| From many a foreign clime, | |
| Snatched by the storm from the clinging clasp | |
| Of hands that the lonely will never grasp, | |
| While the world yet measures time. | 20 |
| |
| Back, back to its depths went the ebbing tide, | |
| Leaving its stores to rest, | |
| Unsought and unseen in the silent bay, | |
| To be gathered again, ere close of day, | |
| To the ocean’s mighty breast. | 25 |
| |
| Kinder than man art thou, O sea; | |
| Frankly we give our best, | |
| Truth, and hope, and love, and faith, | |
| Devotion that challenges time and death | |
| Its sterling worth to test. | 30 |
| |
| We fling them down at our darling’s feet, | |
| Indifference leaves them there. | |
| The careless footstep turns aside, | |
| Weariness, changefulness, scorn, or pride, | |
| Bring little of thought or care. | 35 |
| |
| No tide of human feeling turns; | |
| Once ebbed, love never flows; | |
| The pitiful wreckage of time and strife, | |
| The flotsam and jetsam of human life, | |
| No saving reflux knows. | 40 |
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