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THE OCEAN GRAVE, by                     Poet's Biography
First Line: Friends! When I die prepare my welcome grave
Last Line: Of that whose whispers are eternity.


Friends! when I die prepare my welcome grave,
Where the eternal Ocean rolls his wave;
Rough through the blast, still let his free-born breeze,
Which freshness wafts to earth from endless seas,
Sigh o'er my sleep, and let his glancing spray
Weep tear-drops sparkling with a heavenly ray;
A constant mourner then shall watch my tomb,
And nature deepen while it soothes the gloom.

O let that element whose voice had power
To cheer my darkest, soothe my loneliest hour;
Which through my life my spirit lov'd so well,
Still o'er my grave its tale of glory tell.
The generous Ocean whose proud waters bear
The spoil and produce they disdain to wear,
Whose wave claims kindred with the azure sky,
From whom reflected stars beam gloriously;
Emblem of God! unchanging, infinite,
Awful alike in loveliness and might;
Rolls still untiring like the tide of Time,
Binds man to man and mingles clime with clime;
And as the sun, which from each lake and stream,
Through all the world, where'er their waters gleam,
Collects the crowd his heavenly ray conceals,
And slakes the thirst which all creation feels,
So Ocean gathers tribute from each shore,
To bid each climate know its want no more.
Exil'd on earth, a fetter'd prisoner here,
Barr'd from all treasures which my soul holds dear,
The kindred soul, the fame my youth desir'd,
Whilst hope hath fled which once my bosom fir'd;
Dead to all joy, still to my fancy glow
Dreams of delight which heavenward thoughts bestow,
Not then in death shall I unconscious be
Of that whose whispers are Eternity.





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