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Classic and Contemporary Poetry


SORROW by WILLIAM SHARP

First Line: THE WRACK IS LAPPING IN THE POOLS, THE SEA'S LIP FEELS THE SAND
Last Line: OR WITH DULL THUNDERS PLUNGE FROM SHORE TO SHORE.)
Subject(s): GRIEF; HOPE; PRAYER; SALVATION; SEA; TIDES; SORROW; SADNESS; OPTIMISM; OCEAN;

The wrack is lapping in the pools, the sea's lip feels the sand,
Upon the mussel-purple rocks the restless mews are wailing:
The sinuous serpents of the tide are darkly twisting to the land:
The west wind drinks the foam as east she comes a-sailing.

@3(A whisper of the secret tides upon another coast,
The windy headlands of the soul, the lone sands of the mind. . . .
That whisper swells as of a congregating host,
And I am as one frozen, or deaf, or blind.)@1

O Tide that fills the little pools along the sunset-strand,
That sets the mews a-wailing above the wailing sea,
Bring back, hold out, O flowing Tide, O with a saviour hand
Restore the long-ebbed hopes, some fragment give to me!

@3(Along the dim and broken coasts the tired mind knows its own,
By day and night the silent tides are silent evermore:
Around the headlands of the soul the great deeps moan,
Or with dull thunders plunge from shore to shore.)@1



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