Poetry Explorer


Classic and Contemporary Poetry


EPITAPH FOR A SAILOR BURIED ASHORE by CHARLES GEORGE DOUGLAS ROBERTS

First Line: HE WHO BUT YESTERDAY WOULD ROAM
Last Line: WHOSE WILL THE WATER'S WILL!
Subject(s): EPITAPHS; FUNERALS; SAILING & SAILORS; BURIALS;

HE who but yesterday would roam
Careless as clouds and currents range,
In homeless wandering most at home,
Inhabiter of change;

Who wooed the west to win the east,
And named the stars of north and south,
And felt the zest of Freedom's feast
Familiar in his mouth;

Who found a faith in stranger speech,
And fellowship in foreign hands,
And had within his eager reach
The relish of all lands --

How circumscribed a plot of earth
Keeps now his restless footsteps still,
Whose wish was wide as ocean's girth,
Whose will the water's will!



Home: PoetryExplorer.net