Poem by Emily Pauline Johnson

Through Time and Bitter Distance

    Unknown to you, I walk the cheerless shore.
        The cutting blast, the hurl of biting brine
    May freeze, and still, and bind the waves at war,
        Ere you will ever know, O! Heart of mine,
    That I have sought, reflected in the blue
        Of these sea depths, some shadow of your eyes;
    Have hoped the laughing waves would sing of you,
        But this is all my starving sight descries -

    I

    Far out at sea a sail
        Bends to the freshening breeze,
    Yields to the rising gale
        That sweeps the seas;

    II

    Yields, as a bird wind-tossed,
        To saltish waves that fling
    Their spray, whose rime and frost
        Like crystals cling

    III

    To canvas, mast and spar,
        Till, gleaming like a gem,
    She sinks beyond the far
        Horizon's hem.

    IV

    Lost to my longing sight,
        And nothing left to me
    Save an oncoming night, -
        An empty sea.

1. Overlooked
2. Wave-Won
3. Prairie Greyhounds
4. Re-Voyage
5. The Corn Husker

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