ANSWER, ye chiming waves That now in sunshine sweep! Speak to me from thy hidden caves, Voice of the solemn deep! Hath man's lone spirit here With storms in battle striven? Where all is now so calmly clear, Hath anguish cried to heaven? -- Then the sea's voice arose Like an earthquake's undertone: "Mortal! the strife of human woes @3Where@1 hath @3not@1 nature known? "Here to the quivering mast Despair hath wildly clung; The shriek upon the wind hath passed, The midnight sky hath rung. "And the youthful and the brave, With their beauty and renown, To the hollow chambers of the wave In darkness have gone down. "They are vanished from their place -- Let their homes and hearths make moan! But the rolling waters keep no trace Of pang or conflict gone." -- Alas! thou haughty deep! The strong, the sounding far! My heart before thee dies, -- I weep To think on what we are! To think that so we pass -- High hope, and thought, and mind -- Even as the breath-stain from the glass, Leaving no sign behind! Saw st thou naught else, thou main? Thou and the midnight sky? Naught save the struggle, brief and vain, The parting agony! -- And the sea's voice replied: "Here nobler things have been! Power, with the valiant when they died, To sanctify the scene: "Courage, in fragile form, Faith, trusting to the last, Prayer, breathing heavenwards thro' the storm: But all alike have passed." Sound on, thou haughty sea! @3These@1 have not passed in vain; My soul awakes, my hope springs free On victor wings again. @3Thou@1, from thine empire driven, May'st vanish with thy powers; But, by the hearts that here have striven, A loftier doom is ours! | Discover our Poem Explanations and Poet Analyses!Other Poems of Interest...A VALEDICTION: OF THE BOOKE by JOHN DONNE SHELLEY'S SKYLARK by THOMAS HARDY IPHIGENEIA AND AGAMEMNON, FR. THE HELLENICS by WALTER SAVAGE LANDOR THE PILLAR OF THE CLOUD by JOHN HENRY NEWMAN WHITE FIELDS by JAMES STEPHENS THE SEASONS: A HYMN by JAMES THOMSON (1700-1748) THOREAU by AMOS BRONSON ALCOTT |