WITH THE TIDE
Now mine was fall’n aswound.
O, a speck, on a speck of the earth I stood—
And the whole World lay all round.
And I said: “What must be, will be,
Whether I will or no. . . .”
“There’s That in the world must take its way
Across our weal and woe.
There’s more to the World than you an’ me.”
“David! David! Go!”
A sea-snail crawl’d upon the sand,
The hard sand shining-brown,—
Years back, each ebb has drain’d it, years
To come, each flood will drown:
“There’s a need,” I said, “and a want—that’s why. . . .”
And I watch’d the tide go down. . . .
. . . Calm I went in, calm I took
His dead face to my breast.
The vacant night, the vacant day,
Have pass’d me undistress’d.
I’ve had to agree with the Will of God,
My heart’s broke, but at rest.
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