SENATOR EDWARD D. BAKER
369
It were vain to ask, as thou rollest afar,
Of banner, or mariner, ship or star;
It were vain to seek in thy stormy face
Some tale of the sorrowful past to trace.
Thou art swelling high, thou art flashing free,
How vain are the questions we ask of thee!
I, too, am a wave on a stormy sea:
I, too, am a wanderer, driven like thee;
I, too, am seeking a distant land
To be lost and gone ere I reach the strand
For the land I seek is a waveless shore,
And they who once reach it shall wander no more.
