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WITH THE TIDE
But, quick and strong above them, I
Heard my own heart-throbs sound,
My thoughts, ’mid that dead hush, I felt
Beating round and round.
O I felt I was the one live thing
Left, in a world aswound.
Ay, ’twixt the sleeping air and sky,
And the tide that seem’d asleep,
I mind how I stood, all stir and strain,
My man’s life for to keep—
Till, sudden, It fell! Sudden, on me
Fell the grey Quiet deep.
It was not peace, it was not pain,
Not hope and not despair.
It was myself drawn out of me,
And I set empty there.
And I heard the slow words from my mouth
Dropping, like a prayer.
The sea and sky stood firm, the waves
Kept up their plashing sound,
I seemed to wake to the life of things,
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