SEAWARD

AN ELEGY ON THE DEATH OF
THOMAS WILLIAM PARSONS

BY
RICHARD HOVEY

BOSTON
D. LOTHROP COMPANY
1893

"Il tremolar della marina."—Dante.

Looking seaward well assured
That the word the vessel brings
Is the word they wish to hear.

—Emerson.

There is a city builded by no hand,
And unapproachable by any shore,
And unassailable by any band
Of storming soldiery forevermore.

—Parsons.

SEAWARD

[I.]

THE tide is in the marshes. Far away
In Nova Scotia's woods they follow me,
Marshes of distant Massachusetts Bay,
Dear marshes, where the dead once loved to be!
I see them lying yellow in the sun,
And hear the mighty tremor of the sea
Beyond the dunes where blue cloud-shadows run.