AS I look from the isle, o'er its billows of green, To the billows of foam-crested blue, Yon bark, that afar in the distance is seen, Half dreaming, my eyes will pursue: Now dark in the shadow, she scatters the spray As the chaff in the stroke of the flail; Now white as the sea-gull, she flies on her way, The sun gleaming bright on her sail. Yet her pilot is thinking of dangers to shun, -- Of breakers that whiten and roar; How little he cares, if in shadow or sun They see him who gaze from the shore! He looks to the beacon that looms from the reef, To the rock that is under his lee, As he drifts on the blast, like a windwafted leaf, O'er the gulfs of the desolate sea. Thus drifting afar to the dim-vaulted caves Where life and its ventures are laid, The dreamers who gaze while we battle the waves May see us in sunshine or shade; Yet true to our course, though the shadows grow dark, We'll trim our broad sail as before, And stand by the rudder that governs the bark, Nor ask how we look from the shore! | Discover our Poem Explanations and Poet Analyses!Other Poems of Interest...JUNE (1) by WILLIAM CULLEN BRYANT THE DESERTED HOUSE by MARY ELIZABETH COLERIDGE EPITAPHS OF THE WAR, 1914-18: COMMON FORM by RUDYARD KIPLING TO THE DEAD FAVOURITE OF LIU CH'E by DJUNA BARNES URANIA; THE WOMAN IN THE MOON: DEDICATION TO HENRY, PRINCE OF WALES by WILLIAM BASSE BLUE BUTTERFLY by EDMUND CHARLES BLUNDEN TO HIS WORTHY FRIEND, MASTER SHAKERLY MARMION, UPON CUPID AND PSYCHE by RICHARD BROME |