ANTHOLOGY OF MASSACHUSETTS POETS (51)

    I

    THE SONG OF THE WAVE This is the song of the wave！ The mighty² one！ Child of the soul of silence, beating the air to sound： White as a live terror, as a drawn³ sword, This is the wave.

    II

    This is the song of the wave, the white-maned steed of the Tempest Whose veins⁴ are swollen⁵ with life, In whose flanks abide⁶ the four winds. This is the wave.

    III

    This is the song of the wave！ The dawn leaped out of the sea And the waters lay smooth as a silver shield, And the sun-rays smote⁷ on the waters like a golden sword. Then a wind blew out of the morning And the waters rustled⁸ And the wave was born！

    IV This is the song of the wave！ The wind blew out of the noon

    And the white sea-birds like driven foam⁹ Winged in from the ocean that lay beyond the sky And the face of the waters was barred with white, For the wave had many brothers, And the wave was strong！

    V

    This is the song of the wave！ The wind blew out of the sunset And the west was lurid¹⁰ as Hell. The black clouds closed like a tomb, for the sun was dead. Then the wind smote full as the breath of God, And the wave called to its brothers, "This is the crest¹¹ of life！" VI

    This is the song of the wave, that rises to fall, Rises a sheer green wall like a barrier of glass That has caught the soul of the moonlight. Caught and prisoned the moon-beams； Its edge is frittered to foam. This is the wave！

    VII

    This is the song of the wave, of the wave that falls- Wild as a burst of day-gold blown through the colours of morning It shivers to infinite atoms up the rumbling¹² steep of sand. This is the wave.

    VIII

    This is the song of the wave that died in the fullness of life. The prodigal¹³ this, that lavished¹⁴ its largess of strength In the lust¹⁵ of attainment¹⁶. Aiming at things for Heaven too high, Sure in the pride of life, in the richness of strength. So tried it the impossible height, till the end was found： Where ends the soul that yearns¹⁷ for the fillet of morning stars, The soul in the toils¹⁸ of the journeying worlds, Whose eye is filled with the Image of God, And the end is Death！