Ceaseless the searchlight scans the restless seas Swinging relentless rhythms pivoted afar. Ah, who dares brave the obdurate cliffs and tide Or stem the rips that small boats dread to ride? Not he who serves his sentence striped Nor he who holds within his heart a secret stain. Nor even he who would not fight his brother man But sleeps within a dungeon deep below the main. He waits the lap and laugh of waters cold Who pays the price and checks his country's wrong Bitter he comes and bitter serves and bitter ends. Hate builds his hope on hatred, hope more strong. Straights rise gray rocks from beating, surging surf. Topped by sharp walls sentried, stern and grim. Thick mists envelop all the heights Like mantles thrown in charity around. There pace all caged things at work alert, aware. For outcasts hate the caste which put them there. Sons of the state mistaken, mad, they tried and failed. But justice levels all. Blind to weigh right They wait the tick of time. Ceaseless the searchlight scans the restless seas Swinging relentless rhythms pivoted afar. Ah, who dare brave the obdurate cliff and tide Or stem the rips small boats still dread to ride? | Discover our Poem Explanations and Poet Analyses!Other Poems of Interest...BONNYBELL: THE GRAY SPHEX by EDGAR LEE MASTERS WHITE AN' BLUE by WILLIAM BARNES MORTAL COMBAT by MARY ELIZABETH COLERIDGE HIS PRAYER FOR ABSOLUTION by ROBERT HERRICK THE SUICIDE by EDNA ST. VINCENT MILLAY SONNET: 16. TO THE LORD GENERAL CROMWELL, MAY 1652 by JOHN MILTON THE WAITER AND THE ALLIGATOR by G. W. A. ON A SMALL DOG by EDMUND CHARLES BLUNDEN EXTRACTS FROM NEW-YEAR'S VERSES FOR 1825 by JOHN GARDINER CALKINS BRAINARD |