Thomas Humphry Ward, ed. The English Poets. 1880–1918.rnVol. III. The Eighteenth Century: Addison to Blake

William Cowper (1731–1800)

To the Rev. Mr. Newton

On His Return from Ramsgate

THAT ocean you of late surveyed,

Those rocks, I too have seen,

But I afflicted and dismayed,

You tranquil and serene.

You from the flood-controlling steep

Saw stretched before your view,

With conscious joy, the threatening deep,

No longer such to you.

To me the waves that ceaseless broke

Upon the dangerous coast,

Hoarsely and ominously spoke

Of all my treasure lost.

Your sea of troubles you have past,

And found the peaceful shore;

I, tempest-tossed, and wrecked at last,

Come home to port no more.