Stranded.
WE found a wreck cast up on the shore,
Battered and bruised, and scarred and rent,
And I spoke aloud, "Here was worthless work,
And a barque unfit to the sea was sent."
But he said, my friend, in his gentle mood,
"Nay, none may say but the barque was good,
For none can tell of the seas it sailed,
Of the waves it braved and the storms withstood."
Then we spoke no more, but I mutely mused
And thought, oh, heart and oh, life of man
That we find wrecked! we may never know
How brave you were when your course began.