TERRIBLE waves! In fierce, unearthly chorus Ye threaten the frail vessel to entomb; Still darker than the fearful storm-cloud o'er us, Your yawning gulfs of death-portending gloom. Beautiful waves! In joyous freedom dancing, Ye burst like living things upon the strand; Your snowy crests in the pure sunlight glancing, Flash like a vision bright of fairy-land. Oh, such are trials! All Earth's sons and daughter Feel in them awful messengers of ire, More dark and dread than ocean's troubled waters; Death, and not Life, their horrors aye inspire. Not so in Heaven! On that shore of gladness Each past grief seems a blessing, and each pain Hath lost the midnight hues of earthborn sadness,— The once-dark waves gleam bright—each loss appears a gain. | Discover our Poem Explanations and Poet Analyses!Other Poems of Interest...A THOUGHT by WILLIAM HENRY DAVIES SONNET: 144 by WILLIAM SHAKESPEARE BIRDS by NESTA HIGGINSON SKRINE TO A COMMON PROSTITUTE by WALT WHITMAN THE ADORATION OF DISK BY KING AKHNATEN AND PRINCESS NEFER NEFERIU ATEN by AKHENATEN THE PEN by GHALIB IBN RIBAH AL-HAJJAM COMEDY by THOMAS BAILEY ALDRICH |