II.

A watery waste the sinful world has grown,

With no dry spot whereon the eye can rest,

No man, no beast, no bird to gaze upon,

Can all be dead, with silent sleep possessed?

Oh, how I long the hills and vales to see,

To find myself on barren steppes were bliss.

I peer about, but nothing greeteth me,

Naught save the ship, the clouds, the waves' abyss,

The crocodile which rushes from the deeps;