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. | Discover our Poem Explanations and Poet Analyses!Other Poems of Interest...THE MALDIVE SHARK by HERMAN MELVILLE AT BETHLEHEM: 3. TO HIS MOTHER by JOHN BANISTER TABB FOOT-PRINTS by ANNE MILLAY BREMER TRAILING ARBUTUS by JOHN BURROUGHS A MYSTERY by RICHARD EUGENE BURTON TALES OF THE HALL: BOOK 20. THE CATHEDRAL-WALK by GEORGE CRABBE |