But is it earth or sea that heaves below?

The gulf rolls like a meadow-swell, o'erstrewn

With ravaged boughs and remnants of the shore;

And now, some islet, loosened from the land,

Swims past with all its trees, sailing to ocean:

And now the air is full of uptorn canes.

Light strippings from the fan-trees, tamarisks

Unrooted, with their birds still clinging to them,

All high in the wind. Even so my varied life

Drifts by me.