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Classic and Contemporary Poetry


THE STORMS AND THE HAVENS by WILLIAM WATSON

Poet Analysis

First Line: YOUR EYES WERE PINING SOUTHWARD, AND YOU
Last Line: IN THE HARBOURS THAT WE VOYAGE TO WITH DREAM-SAILS ALONE.

YOUR eyes were pining southward, and you said, "The lands are yonder
That can woo me with sweet fierceness o'er the interloping sea."
But I answered, "Oh, I care not whether south or north we wander,
For the world is lovely everywhere if roam'd through with thee."

We lingered by the waters as they rose and subsided;
We watched the plumy children of the foam and the spray;
We saw the massing clouds that in a moody silence glided;
We heard the tempest peal, amid the ruins of the day.

And the Ocean to this land of ours a wild kiss was throwing,
From the lips that ever babble of the Far and Unknown;
And the dream-tides were lapping, and the dream-winds blowing,
In the harbours that we voyage to with dream-sails alone.



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