Poetry Explorer- Classic Contemporary Poetry, THE WAVES, by BAYARD TAYLOR


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Classic and Contemporary Poetry

THE WAVES, by                     Poet's Biography
First Line: Children are we
Last Line: Sorrows and hopes of earth!
Alternate Author Name(s): Taylor, James Bayard
Subject(s): Earth; Grief; Heaven; Sea; Waves; World; Sorrow; Sadness; Paradise; Ocean


I.

CHILDREN are we
Of the restless sea,
Swelling in anger or sparkling in glee,
We follow our race,
In shifting chase,
Over the boundless ocean-space!
Who hath beheld where the race begun?
Who shall behold it run?
Who shall behold it run?

II.

When the smooth airs keep
Their noontide sleep,
We dimple the cheek of the dreaming deep;
When the rough winds come,
From their cloudy home,
At the tap of the hurricane's thunder-drum,
Deep are the furrows of wrath we plough,
Ridging his darkened brow!
Ridging his darkened brow!

III.

Over us born,
The unclouded Morn
Trumpets her joy with the Triton's horn,
And sun and star
By the thousand are
Orbed in our glittering, near and far:
And the splendor of Heaven, the pomp of Day,
Shine in our laughing spray!
Shine in our laughing spray!

IV.

We murmur our spell
Over sand and shell;
We girdle the reef with a combing swell;
And bound in the vice
Of the Arctic ice,
We build us a palace of grand device, --
Walls of crystal and splintered spires.
Flashing with diamond fires!
Flashing with diamond fires!

V.

In the endless round
Of our motion and sound,
The fairest dwelling of Beauty is found,
And with voice of strange
And solemn change,
The elements speak in our world-wide range,
Harping the terror, the might, the mirth,
Sorrows and hopes of Earth!
Sorrows and hopes of Earth!





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