THE spirits of the mighty sea, To-night are waken'd from their dreams, And upward to the tempest flee, Baring their foreheads where the gleams Of lightning run, and thunders cry, Rushing and raining through the sky! The spirits of the sea are waging Loud war upon the peaceful night, And bands of the black winds are raging Through the tempest blue and bright; Blowing her cloudy hair to dust With kisses, like a madman's lust! What ghost now, like an Ate, walketh Earth -- ocean -- air? and aye with time, Mingled, as with a lover talketh? Methinks their colloquy sublime Draws anger from the sky, which raves Over the self-abandon'd waves! Behold! like millions mass'd in battle, The trembling billows headlong go, Lashing the barren deeps, which rattle In mighty transport till they grow All fruitful in their rocky home, And burst from phrensy into foam. And look! where on the faithless billows Lie women, and men, and children fair; Some hanging, like sleep, to their swollen pillows, With helpless sinews and streaming hair, And some who plunge in the yawning graves! Ah! lives there no strength beyond the waves? 'Tis said, the moon can rock the sea From phrensy strange to silence mild -- To sleep -- to death: -- But where is @3she@1, While now her storm-born giant child Upheaves his shoulder to the skies? Arise, sweet planet pale -- arise! She cometh -- lovelier than the dawn In summer, when the leaves are green -- More graceful than the alarmed fawn, Over his grassy supper seen: Bright quiet from her beauty falls, Until -- again the tempest calls! The supernatural storm -- he waketh Again, and lo! from sheets all white, Stands up unto the stars, and shaketh Scorn on the jewell'd locks of night. He carries a ship on his foaming crown, And a cry, like hell, as he rushes down! And so still soars from calm to storm, The stature of the unresting sea: So doth desire or wrath deform Our else calm humanity -- Until at last we sleep, And never wake nor weep, (Hush'd to death by some faint tune,) In our grave beneath the moon! | Discover our Poem Explanations and Poet Analyses!Other Poems of Interest...SPOON RIVER ANTHOLOGY: EPILOGUE by EDGAR LEE MASTERS SONNETS FROM THE PORTUGUESE: 35 by ELIZABETH BARRETT BROWNING PUTTING IN THE SEED by ROBERT FROST SONNETS ON PICTURES: MARY MAGDALEN AT THE DOOR OF SIMON THE PHARISEE by DANTE GABRIEL ROSSETTI ETERNITY by GRACE GRISWOLD BISBY ODE TO A CHILD by MATHILDE BLIND ADON OLAM by GEORGE HENRY BORROW |