THE SHIP AND THE SEA
Day after day, thro’ following night on night,
Whether ’twixt Blue and Blue, amid grey calm,
Tempest, or chill disconsolating fog—
Still thro’ void air, ’neath one continuing dome
Of mute enormous sky—o’er plain on plain
Of lonely, stark, uninterrupted sea—
From circle to repeated circle of
Mere space for ever changing, aye unchanged:
Voyages on her solitary way
The strong sea-worthy ship.
And she informs that void. The solitude
She peoples, and to all that blank gives point.
Her single presence wakes as to an aim,
Touches, as tho’ to sense, the occupants
Of that insensate world. The leashless waves
Race at her side and follow at her heel:
The virgin and clean air dwells in her sails,
And seabirds, none know whence, sudden appearing,
Hover, as round their mother, at her helm.
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