Ode to the Sea

My ears are dinn'd with discords of the earth;
My mind is vex'd; a hilly heaviness
Doth weigh my heart and squeeze it of its mirth;
An earthy suffocation doth oppress
My free-born breath with an unusual stress;
I feel the barren desert burning lone,
That parches all my being with its fire;
Who shall now make me free?
I flee in fiery haste to find thy throne,
And hear the solemn voices of thy lyre:
O save me, hold-me in thine ecstasy,
Unfathomable Sea!
Thou organ-voice of Nature's full-blown art!
Thou younger brother of immeasurable Time,
Who fills and yet unfills his bounteous heart
That seems for ever in its fullest prime!
Thou worthy shadow of that Mind sublime
That spreads on earth its depth and vastness grand!
Thy giant size and solemn awe proclaim
Thine august majesty;
O stretch across thy strong and succouring hand
To one who has, like thee, a foaming frame,
O soothe him at thy million-pearled knee
Illustrious Sea!
Who has not heard thy lyre, immortal Bard!
Who has not felt thy music nobly sung?
A thousand breezes carry free, unbarr'd,
Thy message to the mountain-daughters young,
Who leap forth from their homes as magic-stung:–
They rush, they rush to thee, down nights and days,
Rush through a thousand rocks and valleys wide,
As I now rush to thee:
Ofold us in thy mighty warm embrace,
And seat us in thy heart thro' Love's great tide,
Chanting thy million-tongued melody,
Great Minstrel Sea!
The threshold of thy Palace past, there cease
The mortal mists of earth and sky from sight:–
Ah! here within thy halls of glassy peace
I feel a wavy joy, a white delight,
Which gives my feeble soul new depth-born might.
Thy gloomy grandeur, where no wind even dares
To flutter his wild tempest-scaling wings,
Is the true elegy
Ofall the glory of the earth's great heirs,
Buried unknown as kings or common things:
Sing on; who can unravel thy mystery?
O potent Sea!
I walk on jewell'd floors and golden sands,
And shells that bear the history of a race;
I wonder at the starry-fruited lands
That teem with their aquarian populace.
Who can explore thy vast unfathomable space:–
Thy diamond caverns and thy coral caves,
Thy gem-deck'd courts, thy coffered depths divine,
Thy pearly privacy,
Thy living springs, thy ever-blossoming waves,
Thy magic chant that fills our mundane shrine?
We fail to reach thy cosmic sanctuary,
Immeasurable Sea!
Thou mirror of the fairy Universe!
Wherein she wearies not all night and day
To look and get a glimpse of Truth, that terse
And nude, gives faithfully her soul away.
Thou mother of the thundermg clouds, that slay
The tyrant Grishma¹with their pattering spears
And pour upon the earth thy bounteous bliss
To bloom again in glee!
We, who have brief delights and griefs and fears,
Forget thy rolling tides that never miss
Thy duty stern, thy self-imposed decree,
Unswayable Sea!
The great obey the Law: and thou art great;
The mighty never overleap their bound
Of self-restraint; their will's inviolate;
Or if they did, the world would soon be found
A mass of chaos struggling all round.
Thou knowest the Law, and greatly yield'st to it:
Thy constant service, thy undying love,
Thy true fidelity,
Thy moon and sun with whom thy heart is knit,
Thy loftiest task of Life all joys above!
Could we observe thy great austerity,
O mighty Sea!
Life flags but tame with those who have no aim,
No noble impulse stirs their puny mind:
There is a whitest point in every flame,
There is a central power each globe behind:
God says, "unturn the leaf and there Me find."
Ah! who could teach us more of Life's great goal,
Or point our vision to the beaconing gleam
Than thine high sanctity?
Let thy eternal whispers lull my soul,
And let thy rhythmic roll spur my great dream;
Make my tongue vocal with thy harmony,
O thundering Sea!

1 The Lord of Summer.