THESE sandy wastes are tributes to a mighty past, The ancient times when man had yet not traversed earth: The sea had rolled its waves upon an ocean floor That now grows pines and moss and lowly shrubbery. No signs but whitened sands betray the distant age, The stormy deeps and plash of waves that ground the rocks To sandy dust, waiting in sun and rain to grow A covering for its nakedness and its barren soil. How nature struggles here in tree and plant to show Her fertile genius and enrich the eye with sheen Of varied growth, extending her dominion there O'er ravages of wind and sea, the thunder kings. Then follows man, the paragon of animals, With home and garden, twixt saving care and waste, Half helps and half destroys the wilderness of life, That won a splendid victory o'er ploughing main. | Discover our Poem Explanations and Poet Analyses!Other Poems of Interest...SEASHORE (1) by RALPH WALDO EMERSON THE WEST WIND by JOHN MASEFIELD SEA SLUMBER-SONG by RODEN BERKELEY WRIOTHESLEY NOEL THE SHIPMAN'S TALE by THOMAS BAILEY ALDRICH WRITTEN IN BUTLER'S SERMONS by MATTHEW ARNOLD THE BUTTERFLY by MARGARET AVISON PSALM 42 by OLD TESTAMENT BIBLE |