FROM out the dragging vastness of the sea, Wave-fettered, bound in sinuous seaweed strands, He toils toward the rounding beach, and stands One moment, white and dripping, silently, Cut like a cameo in lazuli, Then falls, betrayed by shifting shells, and lands Prone in the jeering water, and his hands Clutch for support where no support can be. So up, and down, and forward, inch by inch, He gains upon the shore, where poppies glow And sandflies dance their little lives away. The sucking waves retard, and tighter clinch The weeds about him, but the land-winds blow, And in the sky there blooms the sun of May. | Discover our Poem Explanations and Poet Analyses!Other Poems of Interest...DOMESDAY BOOK: THE CORONER by EDGAR LEE MASTERS THE DEATH OF GRANT by AMBROSE BIERCE REBEL MOTHER'S LULLABY by SHANE LESLIE A SOUTHERN NIGHT by MATTHEW ARNOLD SACRED LYRIC by ISIDORE G. ASCHER SONNETS OF MANHOOD: 4. THE OLD VALLEY by GEORGE BARLOW (1847-1913) THE LAST MAN: DREAM OF DYING by THOMAS LOVELL BEDDOES CHARITY by JOHN GARDINER CALKINS BRAINARD A SWEET CONTENTION BETWEEN LOVE, HIS MISTRESS, AND BEAUTY by NICHOLAS BRETON |