Sea Poems Part 13

WASTE

I flung a wild rose into the sea, I know not why.

For swinging there on a rathe rose-tree, By the scented bay and barberry, Its petals gave all their sweet to me, As I pa.s.sed by.

And yet I flung it into the tide, And went my way.

I climbed the gray rocks, far and wide, And many a cove of peace I tried, With none of them all to be satisfied, The whole long day.

For I had wasted a beautiful thing, Which might have won Each pa.s.sing heart to pause and sing, On the sea-path there, of its blossoming.

And who wastes beauty shall feel want's sting, As I had done.

RESURGENCE

I was content, O Sea, to be free for a s.p.a.ce from striving, Content as the brown weed is, at rest on rocks in the sun, When the salt tide is out, and the surf no more is riving At its roots, or swirling and bidding it sway where the white waves run.

I was content--with life, and love, and a little over; A little achieved of the much that is given to men to do.

But now with your tidal strife do you come again, vain rover, And tell of vast.i.tudes, to be sailed, or sounded, anew.

Now again do you surge. And the fathomless tides of thinking, Of wanting, waiting, despairing--or daring--with you come; The inner tides of the soul, that had ebbed with slumberous shrinking, But now are bursting again, thro the caves of it long numb.

So vainly I lie on the cliff with the blissful Blue above me And listless sated gulls afloat below on the swells, For I am soothless, sateless, because of desires that shove me Out and away with the winds, on quests no distance quells!

LIFE'S ANSWER

A stroke of lightning stabbed the storm-black sea, As if it sought the heart of Life thereunder, And meant to put an end to it utterly;-- Then came thunder-- Wildly applauding thunder.

Riven with fear the foam-crests ran before it, Hissed by the rain and beaten down to darkness.

A gull rose out of the murk with wings that tore it-- Life's answer to the storm's terrible starkness.

AS THE TIDE COMES IN

The quivering terns dart wild and dive, As the tide comes tumbling in.

The calm rock-pools grow all alive, With the tide tumbling in.

The crab who under the brown weed creeps, And the snail who lies in his house and sleeps, Awake and stir, as the plunging sweeps Of the tide come tumbling in.

Gray driftwood swishes along the sand, As the tide comes tumbling in.

With wreck and wrack from many a land, On the tide, tumbling in.

About the beach are a broken spar, A pale anemone's torn sea-star And scattered sc.u.m of the waves' old war, As the tide tumbles in.

And, oh, there is a stir at the heart of me, As the tide comes tumbling in.

All life once more is a part of me, As the tide tumbles in.

New hopes awaken beneath despair And thoughts slip free of the sloth of care, While beauty and love are everywhere-- As the tide comes tumbling in.

SENSE-SWEETNESS

Flowers are dancing, waves playing, pines swaying, gulls are a-swarm; Sea and heather, sunning together, glad of the weather, with G.o.d are warm.

Flowers are dancing, clouds winging, larks singing, summer abrew-- Summer the old ecstatic pa.s.sion of Life to fas.h.i.+on the world anew.

TIDALS

Low along the sea, low along the sea, The gray gulls are flying, and one sail swings; The tide is foaming in; the soft wind sighing; The brown kelp is stretching, to the surf, harp-strings.

Low along the sea, low along the sea, The gray gulls are flying, and one sail fades; The tide is foaming out; the soft wind dying; And white stars are peeping from the night's pale shades.

A SAILOR'S WIFE

Into port when the sun was setting Rode the s.h.i.+p that bore my love, Over the breakers wildly fretting, Under the skies above.

Down to the beach I ran to meet him; He would come as he had said: And he came--in a sailor's coffin, Dead! . . . . . .

O the s.h.i.+ps of the sea! the lovers Torn by them apart!...

The tide has nothing now to tell me, The breakers break my heart!

TO SEA!

Give me the tiller; up with the sail!

Now let her swing to the breeze.

Out to sea with a dripping rail, To sea, with a heart at ease!

Out of the Harbour! out of the Bay!