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Classic and Contemporary Poetry


THE SIREN STREAM TO THE OUTCAST by JOHN BANISTER TABB

First Line: COME, FOR MY WAVES THAT I CAN NEVER KNOW
Last Line: TO SOOTH AND BLESS.
Subject(s): SEA; OCEAN;

Come, for my waves that I can never know
Of calm bestow;
And thou, alas, like them, hast wandered far!
Come, erring star --
Aweary now -- come take thy fill of rest
Upon my breast.

Come, for they call thee. Lean thy listening ear
And thou shalt hear
How soft the sigh that woos thee to the deep
Of endless sleep,
Wherein the past and all its passion seem
A vanished dream.

Behold, I cleanse whate'er of soilure clings
To drooping wings:
Whate'er abides of dust or cleaving clay
I purge away;
Like fire, refining, but apart from pain,
All dross and stain.

The fever-flame that throught thy being burns,
My bosom yearns
To quench. Behold, the ripples run to meet
A sister's feet,
With murmurs, not of scorn, but tenderness,
To sooth and bless.



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