SEA.
Ocean! great image of eternity,
And yet of fleeting time, of change, unrest,
Thou vast and wondrous realm of mystery,
Of thy great teachings too is man possessed.
Type of God's boundless might, the here and there
Uniting, thou dost with a righteous fear
Man's heart ennoble, awe, and purify,
As in thy mighty, multitudinous tones echoes of God roll by.
Nature and Man. J.W. MILES.
What are the wild waves saying,
Sister, the whole day long,
That ever amid our playing
I hear but their low, lone song?
What are the Wild Waves Saying? J.B. CARPENTER.
The land is dearer for the sea,
The ocean for the shore.
On the Beach. L. LARCOM.
Distinct as the billows, yet one as the sea.
The Ocean. J. MONTGOMERY.
There the sea I found
Calm as a cradled child in dreamless slumber bound.
The Revolt of Islam, Canto I. P.B. SHELLEY.
And there, where the smooth, wet pebbles be,
The waters gurgle longingly,
As if they fain would seek the shore,
To be at rest from the ceaseless roar,
To be at rest forevermore.
The Sirens. J.R. LOWELL.
I am as a weed,
Flung from the rock, on Ocean's foam, to sail
Where'er the surge may sweep, the tempest's breath prevail.
Don Juan, Canto III. LORD BYRON.
Watching the waves with all their white crests dancing
Come, like thick-plumed squadrons, to the shore
Gallantly bounding.
Julian. SIR A. HUNT.
Once more upon the waters! yet once more!
And the waves behind beneath me as a steed
That knows his rider.
Don Juan, Canto III. LORD BYRON.
I saw him beat the surges under him,
And ride upon their backs; he trod the water,
Whose enmity he flung aside, and breasted
The surge most swoln that met him.
The Tempest, Act ii. Sc. 1. SHAKESPEARE.
The sea heaves up, hangs loaded o'er the land,
Breaks there, and buries its tumultuous strength.
Luria, Act i. R. BROWNING.
Thus, I steer my bark, and sail
On even keel, with gentle gale.
The Spleen. M. GREEN.
What though the sea be calm? trust to the shore,
Ships have been drowned, where late they danced before.
Safety on the Shore. R. HERRICK.
Through the black night and driving rain
A ship is struggling, all in vain,
To live upon the stormy main;—
Miserere Domine!
The Storm. A.A. PROCTER.
But chief at sea, whose every flexile wave
Obeys the blast, the aërial tumult swells.
In the dread Ocean undulating wide,
Beneath the radiant line that girts the globe.
The Seasons: Summer. J. THOMSON.
She comes majestic with her swelling sails,
The gallant Ship: along her watery way,
Homeward she drives before the favoring gales;
Now flirting at their length the streamers play,
And now they ripple with the ruffling breeze.
Sonnet XIX. R. SOUTHEY.
Thou wert before the Continents, before
The hollow heavens, which like another sea
Encircles them and thee; but whence thou wert,
And when thou wast created, is not known,
Antiquity was young when thou wast old.
Hymn to the Sea. R.H. STODDARD.
Strongly it bears us along in swelling and limitless billows.
Nothing before and nothing behind but the sky and the ocean.
The Homeric Hexameter. SCHILLER. Trans. of COLERIDGE.