In a great house by the wide Sea I sat, <br />And down slow fleets and waves that never cease <br />Looked back to the first keels of War and Peace; <br />I saw the Ark, what time the shoreless flat <br />Began to rock to rising Ararat; <br />Or Argo, surging home, with templed Greece <br />To leeward, while, mast-high, the lurching fleece <br />Swung morn from deep to deep. Then in a plat <br />Of tamarisk a bird called me. When again <br />My soul looked forth I ponder'd not the main <br />Of waters but of time; and from our fast <br />Sure Now, with Pagan joy, beheld the pain <br />Of tossing heroes on the triremed Past <br />Obtest the festive Gods and silent stars in vain.<br /><br />Sydney Thompson Dobell<br /><br />http://www.poemhunter.com/poem/i-in-a-great-house-by-the-sea-i-sat/
