Poetry Explorer- Classic Contemporary Poetry, SEA VOICES, by LEWIS MORRIS (1833-1907)


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Classic and Contemporary Poetry

SEA VOICES, by                     Poet's Biography
First Line: Peace, moaning sea; what tale have
Last Line: I wail, I beat, I thunder, evermore.
Subject(s): Sea; Ocean


PEACE, moaning Sea; what tale have you to tell?
What mystic tidings, all unknown before?
Whether you break in thunder on the shore,
Or whisper like the voice within the shell,
O moaning Sea, I know your burden well.

'Tis but the old dull tale, filled full of pain;
The finger on the dial-plate of time,
Advancing slow with pitiless beat sublime,
As stoops the day upon the fading plain;
And that has been which may not be again.

The voice of yearning, deep but scarce expressed,
For something which is not, but may be yet;
Too full of sad continuance to forget,
Too troubled with desires to be at rest,
Too self-conflicting ever to be blest.

The voice of hopes and aspirations high,
Swallowed in sand, or shivered on the rock;
Tumultuous life dashed down with sudden shock;
And passionate protests, narrowed to a sigh,
From hearts too weak to live, -- too strong to die.

The voice of old beliefs which long have fled,
Gone with a shriek, and leaving naught behind,
But some vague utterance, cold as wintry wind, --
Some dim remembrance of a ghostly dread
Which lingers still when faith itself is dead.

And, above all, through thund'rous wintry roar,
And summer ripple, this, and this alone,
For ever do I make this barren moan: --
No end, there is no end, -- on Time's dull shore
I wail, I beat, I thunder, evermore.





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