Clinton Scollard

A Symphony of the Sea

       (GLOZE ROYAL)

  The surges sing in ceaseless monotone
    The songs and sagas of the long-ago;
  Many and mournful are the memories blown
    Across the tireless tides that ebb and flow.

  Lo, he who walks beside the wide sea-shore,
  And sees the waves unbreasted by the oar,
    And lets his thoughts repose on days long flown,
  Will slowly o'er his dreamy vision feel
  A sweetly lingering sadness softly steal,
    And he will pause and listen to the moan
  The iterant billows make upon the sand;
  And all will seem to him a slumber-land,
    Where, through the long night-watches dim and lone,
    The surges sing in ceaseless monotone!

  And in his ear the glorious myths of yore
  With all the rhythmic burdens that they bore,
    Will be retold, replete with joy and woe;—
  Ulysses' voyage will ring with epic peal,
  And the strange tale of Argo's wandering keel;
    Of high-banked Tyrian galleys will he know,
  Of Roman triremes, and of many a band
  The Vikings led from their far norland strand;—
    Stories of strife and love in shine and snow,
    The songs and sagas of the long-ago.

  And there will rise within him, more and more,
  The strong desire to learn the utmost lore
    The great sea holds, that unto none is shown;
  And he will cry and bid the deep unseal
  Its sacred secrets, and to him reveal
    What stern power rules it from what unseen throne.
  But no vast shape will show a regnant hand,
  Unless, perchance, wan Sorrow by him stand;
    From Sorrow's pale, across the seas unsown,
    Many and mournful are the memories blown.

  O thou that hast, from decades gone before,
  Of bitter and of sweet the fullest store,
    Immeasurable sea,—in gloom and glow
  Our joy, our terror and our love,—we kneel
  At thy dark altar with a vain appeal;
    Within thy mighty bosom, far below,
  Lie hid the mysteries of Him who planned
  The circling spheres that wheel at His command;—
    Ah, Sea of Life, to one sure port we go
    Across the tireless tides that ebb and flow!