Sea-Visions
"My dream was past, but not the abiding woe
That weighed upon my being. From the shore
I loosed my boat, with purpose fixed to go
There only whence I could return no more.
That weighed upon my being. From the shore
I loosed my boat, with purpose fixed to go
There only whence I could return no more.
"Now lies my body in its own sea-bed,
Divorced from which I walk the changeless sea,
Severed alike from living and from dead—
Stranger! in yonder vaults they wait for thee."
Divorced from which I walk the changeless sea,
Severed alike from living and from dead—
Stranger! in yonder vaults they wait for thee."
In blank amaze he left us; but not long
In silence on each other might we gaze,
For dreadful portents now began to throng
In the black skies, and fear succeeded to amaze.
In silence on each other might we gaze,
For dreadful portents now began to throng
In the black skies, and fear succeeded to amaze.
No man who saw it shall that storm forget—
Ocean! thy wrath doth pass the wrath of men;
And how I 'scaped thy hold I know not yet—
Keep my brave ship, wild foe! I tempt thee not again.
Ocean! thy wrath doth pass the wrath of men;
And how I 'scaped thy hold I know not yet—
Keep my brave ship, wild foe! I tempt thee not again.
August 31, 1844.
This was almost the last of the poems that have remained in manuscript to which an exact date can be assigned.[1] The following poems, some of which are headed "Fragments from an
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- ↑ Two sonnets excepted, written in 1855, which will be found at the close of this series.
