Thomas Humphry Ward, ed. The English Poets. 1880–1918.rnVol. IV. The Nineteenth Century: Wordsworth to Rossetti

Ebenezer Elliott (1781–1849)

Plaint

DARK, deep, and cold the current flows

Unto the sea where no wind blows,

Seeking the land which no one knows.

O’er its sad gloom still comes and goes

The mingled wail of friends and foes,

Borne to the land which no one knows.

Why shrieks for help yon wretch, who goes

With millions, from a world of woes,

Unto the land which no one knows?

Though myriads go with him who goes,

Alone he goes where no wind blows,

Unto the land which no one knows.

For all must go where no wind blows,

And none can go for him who goes;

None, none return whence no one knows.

Yet why should he who shrieking goes

With millions, from a world of woes,

Reunion seek with it or those?

Alone with God, where no wind blows,

And Death, his shadow—doomed, he goes:

That God is there the shadow shows.

Oh, shoreless Deep, where no wind blows!

And, thou, oh, Land which no one knows!

That God is All, His shadow shows.