| |
1892
WHEN, foot to wheel and back to wind, | |
| The helmsman dare not look behind, | |
| But hears beyond his compass-light, | |
| The blind bow thunder through the night, | |
| And, like a harpstring ere it snaps, | 5 |
| The rigging sing beneath the caps; | |
| Above the shriek of storm in sail | |
| Or rattle of the blocks blown free, | |
| Set for the peace beyond the gale, | |
| This song the Needle sings the Sea: | 10 |
| |
| Oh, drunken Wave! Oh, driving Cloud! | |
| Rage of the Deep and sterile Rain, | |
| By Love upheld, by God allowed, | |
| We go, but we return again! | |
| |
| When leagued about the ’wildered boat | 15 |
| The rainbow Jellies fill and float, | |
| And, lilting where the laver lingers, | |
| The Starfish trips on all her fingers; | |
| Where, ’neath his myriad spines ashock, | |
| The Sea-egg ripples down the rock, | 20 |
| An orange wonder dimly guessed | |
| From darkness where the Cuttles rest, | |
| Moored o’er the darker deeps that hide | |
| The blind white Sea-snake and his bride, | |
| Who, drowsing, nose the long-lost Ships | 25 |
| Let down through darkness to their lips— | |
| Safe-swung above the glassy death, | |
| Hear what the constant Needle saith: | |
| |
| Oh, lisping Reef! Oh, listless Cloud, | |
| In slumber on a pulseless main! | 30 |
| By Love upheld, by God allowed, | |
| We go, but we return again! | |
| |
| E’en so through Tropic and through Trade, | |
| Awed by the shadow of new skies, | |
| As we shall watch old planets fade | 35 |
| And mark the stranger stars arise, | |
| So, surely, back through Sun and Cloud, | |
| So, surely, from the outward main | |
| By Love recalled, by God allowed, | |
| Shall we return—return again! | 40 |
| Yea, we return—return again! | |
| |
