Thy subtlest gift is steersmanship, O Sea!— Of vessels and of states the government. The Greek who first upon thy waters went Would ponder at the helm on polity; And Englishmen, their lesson learnt of thee, In wind and wave and tide grown confident, Have ridden wastes of ocean turbulent, Not as strapped galleyslaves, but as men free. To visionary Jews thou wert "no more!" The Roman prized thee only as a lake, Teuton and Slav, so large on land, no lore Is theirs of arts that the true pilot make. Never to have held the tiller or left the shore, Skills not that day when rigid moorings break. | Discover our Poem Explanations and Poet Analyses!Other Poems of Interest...ONE LIFE by PAUL LAURENCE DUNBAR ECCLESIASTICAL SONNETS: PART 2: 25. THE VIRGIN by WILLIAM WORDSWORTH A PRAYER FOR LOVE by ELSA BARKER SONNET: MAN VERSUS ASCETIC. 2 by LOUISA SARAH BEVINGTON DIRGE ON THE DEATH OF ADAMS AND JEFFERSON by JOHN GARDINER CALKINS BRAINARD ON HIS ENGAGEMENT TO BE MARRIED by CHARLES WILLIAM BRODRIBB FAREWELL TO AUTUMN by JULIA FIELD BROWN OBSERVATIONS IN THE ART OF ENGLISH POESY: 12. TROCHAIC VERSE: THE EIGHTH EPIGRAM by THOMAS CAMPION |