“The sea of faith
Was once, too, at the full, and round earth’s shore
Lay like the folds of a bright girdle furled.”
A new faith emerged from the old doubt, like sweet waters in a bitter sea, and kept man a living soul.
“The sea is calm tonight;
The tide is full.”
But the calm proves to be treacherous. The tide of the new faith now in the bible, and in the doctrine derived from the bible, went back to sea, and now I only hear
“Its melancholy, long, withdrawing roar,
Retreating to the breath
Of the night-wind down the vast edges drear