The low sandy beach and the thin scrub pine, The wide reach of bay and the long sky line, -- O, I am far from home! The salt, salt smell of the thick sea air, And the smooth round stones that the ebbtides wear, -- When will the good ship come? The wretched stumps all charred and burned, And the deep soft rut where the cartwheel turned, -- Why is the world so old? The lapping wave, and the broad gray sky Where the cawing crows and the slow gulls fly, -- Where are the dead untold? The thin, slant willows by the flooded bog, The huge stranded hulk and the floating log, -- Sorrow with life began! And among the dark pines, and along the flat shore, O the wind, and the wind, for evermore! What will become of man? | Discover our Poem Explanations and Poet Analyses!Other Poems of Interest...DESPAIR by GEORGIA DOUGLAS JOHNSON A JOYFUL SONG OF FIVE by KATHERINE MANSFIELD YOUNG LINCOLN by EDWIN MARKHAM HOME-THOUGHTS, FROM ABROAD by ROBERT BROWNING RECIPROCAL KINDNESS THE PRIMARY LAW OF NATURE by VINCENT BOURNE HONOUR'S MARTYR by EMILY JANE BRONTE THE ROCK OF LIBERTY; A PILGRIM ODE, 1620-1920: 3. ACHIEVEMENT by ABBIE FARWELL BROWN |