FROM the vast surface of the ocean gray,
’Neath leaden clouds banked o’er the wintry day,
Silent I swell, and swelling silent glide
Towards the beach that, gray as all beside,
Stretches its endless length and on each hand
Dies in the mist as dies the inward land.
The light glints dully on my rounded mass
As o’er the shifting depths below I pass
To add my note to the mysterious dirge
That moans and mutters darkly, ‘Surge on surge,
From the unknown, amid perpetual roar,
To the mute, half-known shore!’