Poetry Explorer- Classic Contemporary Poetry, HIGH TIDE ON THE VICTORIA EMBANKMENT: 2. THE GREAT ROAD, by MARGARET LOUISA WOODS


Poetry Explorer

Classic and Contemporary Poetry

HIGH TIDE ON THE VICTORIA EMBANKMENT: 2. THE GREAT ROAD, by                     Poet's Biography
First Line: It came up the narrow seas, as a flock it gathered thy / children
Last Line: "what bearest thou?""—and the keel makes answer, ""life."
Alternate Author Name(s): Woods, Mrs. Margaret Louisa Bradley
Subject(s): Life; Victoria, Queen Of England (1819-1901)


It came up the Narrow Seas, as a flock it gathered thy children,
It ushered in thy ships,
Where away from here, from the endless tumult and darkness,
Serene and apart under the wide arch of Heaven,
Stands thy royal gateway, runs the road of the Sea.

Vaunt no more over London your proud streets, O ye cities!
The road of the Sea is hers, even as the streets and avenues
Her towers look on, the road meet for her mighty procession.
No footfall rings there,
Nor the perpetual rumour of an eddying crowd;
It is spread as with silk, it is paved with the perfect silence of waters
Or their large primordial sound. Along it like palaces,
Like gardens ranged is the coast; the way follows it westward.

Yonder westward it opens, gathering in from the Ocean
All thy ships, there where the wind-worn bastions
And crumbled towers of Cornwall darken over the Atlantic,
Where southward wild Finistère flashes on the night.

Out of the old adventure, the single battle of Ocean,
Out of the wide lonely dazzle of water and air
Or the Giant Wars of the waves they are gathered in;
Long, rapidly fading streamers of smoke they multiply,
Sail after sail they arise
This way and that, and on each, intent with a new vigilance,
The Captain walks alert and watches the narrowing road.
And low chaplets of light he sees in the gradual evening
Distantly burn, who beheld eve after eve but the stars
Wheeling in a wide heaven
Uncompanied, over the waste irresponsive sea.

Lights of the great Sea Road, they brighten in long ranges,
Lone challenging lights
Out of invisible towers leap on the dark;
Pierce it and pass, while ever behind them a phantom country
Vaguely appears, and again hurrying sweeps into night.
As lamps incessantly crowd and fly through the heart of the city,
Feverish sparks, he beholds here majestic
Pass without haste, without pause, lamps on the Road of the Sea.

So the night he watches, driving through dim waters
The dark garrulous keel;
While ever the whispering water asks of the garrulous keel,
"What bearest thou?"—and the keel makes answer, "Life."





Discover our Poem Explanations and Poet Analyses!


Other Poems of Interest...
Home: PoetryExplorer.net