It came up the Narrow Seas, as a flock it gathered thy children, It ushered in thy ships, Where away from here, from the endless tumult and darkness, Serene and apart under the wide arch of Heaven, Stands thy royal gateway, runs the road of the Sea. Vaunt no more over London your proud streets, O ye cities! The road of the Sea is hers, even as the streets and avenues Her towers look on, the road meet for her mighty procession. No footfall rings there, Nor the perpetual rumour of an eddying crowd; It is spread as with silk, it is paved with the perfect silence of waters Or their large primordial sound. Along it like palaces, Like gardens ranged is the coast; the way follows it westward. Yonder westward it opens, gathering in from the Ocean All thy ships, there where the wind-worn bastions And crumbled towers of Cornwall darken over the Atlantic, Where southward wild Finistère flashes on the night. Out of the old adventure, the single battle of Ocean, Out of the wide lonely dazzle of water and air Or the Giant Wars of the waves they are gathered in; Long, rapidly fading streamers of smoke they multiply, Sail after sail they arise This way and that, and on each, intent with a new vigilance, The Captain walks alert and watches the narrowing road. And low chaplets of light he sees in the gradual evening Distantly burn, who beheld eve after eve but the stars Wheeling in a wide heaven Uncompanied, over the waste irresponsive sea. Lights of the great Sea Road, they brighten in long ranges, Lone challenging lights Out of invisible towers leap on the dark; Pierce it and pass, while ever behind them a phantom country Vaguely appears, and again hurrying sweeps into night. As lamps incessantly crowd and fly through the heart of the city, Feverish sparks, he beholds here majestic Pass without haste, without pause, lamps on the Road of the Sea. So the night he watches, driving through dim waters The dark garrulous keel; While ever the whispering water asks of the garrulous keel, "What bearest thou?"—and the keel makes answer, "Life." | Discover our Poem Explanations and Poet Analyses!Other Poems of Interest...SUMMER SHOWER by EMILY DICKINSON TYRANNICK [TYRANNIC] LOVE: EPILOGUE by JOHN DRYDEN A SHROPSHIRE LAD: 21. BREDON HILL by ALFRED EDWARD HOUSMAN ON RECEIVING [THE FIRST] NEWS OF THE WAR by ISAAC ROSENBERG TO A WILD DUCK by BERNICE GIBBS ANDERSON |