Poetry Explorer- Classic Contemporary Poetry, HIGH TIDE ON THE VICTORIA EMBANKMENT: 1. THE SEA'S SALUTATION, by MARGARET LOUISA WOODS


Poetry Explorer

Classic and Contemporary Poetry

HIGH TIDE ON THE VICTORIA EMBANKMENT: 1. THE SEA'S SALUTATION, by                     Poet's Biography
First Line: The immense life of the sea, out of remote horizons
Last Line: Passing, under the clatter of wheels and of crowding feet.
Alternate Author Name(s): Woods, Mrs. Margaret Louisa Bradley
Subject(s): London; Sailing & Sailors; Ships & Shipping; Tides; Victoria, Queen Of England (1819-1901)


THE immense life of the Sea, out of remote horizons
Rushing on buoyant wings, the breath of the Sea!
Listen! You shall not hear your own heart beating,
The heart beats so quietly,
Neither shall hear through the roar of the huge tenebrous city
The slow pulse of its heart, which is the heart of the Sea.

Here, where the bent river
Cleaves with silence and sky the loud confusion of London,
Moving inland behold the flooding silent
Majestic tide, which carries upward in noiseless procession
The long barges, the sombre glow of their sails.

Com'st thou an alien guest,
O unregarded Sea? Without purpose wandering
Sweepest thou silverly under the high towers and pinnacles?
Where at the shining tip of the bent bow,
Westminster darkly enthroned
Looks towards the enormous bulk of the City, and soaring
Clear, consummate, a vision—the supreme Dome.

Nay, for thou art the Sea. Lo, to the Imperial City
Thou comest, the great Spouse, having mighty messages.
Hear the word, thou veiled one, enwrapped from the stars,
As though thou wouldst hide from Destiny, the word of the Sea!
'Queen, thou hast many lovers, but one lord—the Ocean.'

The tide knows it, the air is eagerly bringing thee tidings
Of the waters whose shining turmoil engirdles the Earth,
Of solitary ships moving in waste horizons,
Thy Life throbbing in their hearts,
Of the deep Ocean currents that sweeping on ageless errands
Have carried thy Life in their courses and sown it through the world.

The Sea scattered it abroad and again the Sea brings it,
Thy Life from afar, multiplied, regal, renewed.
This is the tide's report, proudly under thy bridges
Passing, under the clatter of wheels and of crowding feet.





Discover our Poem Explanations and Poet Analyses!


Other Poems of Interest...
Home: PoetryExplorer.net