96
A SHEAF GLEANED
It hails with a hymn, immense and sublime,
Which has resounded through æons of time:
Its universal blue, its wide wide expanse
Shelters the stars that there tremble and dance;
It has a rude force, a mercy superb,
For it roots up a rock, and spares an herb;
It throws like thee on proud summits its foam;
Inconstant, it loves round the world to roam;
Only—it never deceives when, with eye
Fixed on its surface, one watches it nigh
From some rock or the sands, pensive, alone,
Spell-bound by its murmur, grand, monotone;
It never deceives, for though it is free
It obeys a high law unceasingly;
It never deceives, for true to the hour
Rises its tide, O People, in power,
Overwhelming, resistless, and fierce to devour.
