FORTY Augusts - aye, and several more - ago, When I paced the headlands loosed from dull employ, The waves huzza'd like a multitude below In the sway of an all-including joy Without cloy. Blankly I walked there a double decade after, When thwarts had flung their toils in front of me, And I heard the waters wagging in a long ironic laughter At the lot of men, and all the vapoury Things that be. Wheeling change has set me again standing where Once I heard the waves huzza at Lammas-tide; But they supplicate now - like a congregation there Who murmur the Confession - I outside, Prayer denied. | Discover our Poem Explanations and Poet Analyses!Other Poems of Interest...CHAMBER MUSIC: 6 by JAMES JOYCE MOUNTAIN VALLEY by MALCOLM COWLEY |