| Andrew Macphail, comp. The Book of Sorrow. 1916. | | | XVIII. The Great Mystery
Plaint | | By Ebenezer Elliott (1781–1849) |
| | | DARK, deep, and cold the current flows | |
| Unto the sea where no wind blows, | |
| Seeking the land which no one knows. | |
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| O’er its sad gloom still comes and goes | |
| The mingled wail of friends and foes, | 5 |
| Borne to the land which no one knows. | |
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| Why shrieks for help yon wretch, who goes | |
| With millions, from a world of woes, | |
| Unto the land which no one knows? | |
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| Though myriads go with him who goes, | 10 |
| Alone he goes where no wind blows, | |
| Unto the land which no one knows. | |
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| For all must go where no wind blows, | |
| And none can go for him who goes; | |
| None, none return whence no one knows. | 15 |
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| Yet why should he who shrieking goes | |
| With millions, from a world of woes, | |
| Reunion seek with it or those? | |
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| Alone with God, where no wind blows, | |
| And Death, His shadow—doom’d, he goes: | 20 |
| That God is there the shadow shows. | |
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| O shoreless Deep, where no wind blows! | |
| And thou, O Land which no one knows! | |
| That God is All, His shadow shows. | | | | |
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