The Man with the Hoe, and Other Poems (Markham, Pyle, 1900)/On the Gulf of Night
On the Gulf of Night
The world's sad petrels dwell for evermore
On windy headland or on ocean floor,
Or pierce the violent skies with perilous flights
That fret men in their palaces o' nights,
Breaking enchanted slumber's easeful boat
With shudderings of their wild and dolorous note;
They blow about the black and barren skies,
They fill the night with ineffectual cries.
There is for them not anything before,
But sound of sea and sight of soundless shore,
Save when the darkness glimmers with a ray,
And Hope sings softly, Soon it will be day.
Then for a golden space the shades are thinned,
And dawn seems blowing seaward on the wind.
But soon the dark comes wilder than before,
And swift around them breaks a sullen roar;
The tempest calls to windward and to lea,
And—they are sea-birds on the homeless sea.