Poetry Explorer- Classic Contemporary Poetry, THE FARTHER SHORE, by SAMUEL VALENTINE COLE


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Classic and Contemporary Poetry

THE FARTHER SHORE, by                    
First Line: We gazed far out upon the lonely main
Last Line: And guide my vessel o'er this sea to her!
Subject(s): Absence; Seashore; Ships & Shipping; Separation; Isolation; Beach; Coast; Shore


WE gazed far out upon the lonely main
How often! dreaming of the land that lay
Beyond it—England, Brittany, or Spain—
Whither the ships passed silently away.

But, oh, the change! My vigil I must keep
Without her now along a different strand,
That rims a vaster, more mysterious, deep,
Beyond which lies—no man can say what land!

Weeks, months, even year on year, may roll
Away and leave me, where I sit alone,
To watch, and wonder in my longing soul
Whither the white sail of her life is gone.

But when at last they call me to embark,
And I put forth, and feel the cold wind stir,
Be thou, O Christ, my pilot through the dark,
And guide my vessel o'er this sea to her!





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