I laid me down upon the shore <br />And dreamed a little space; <br />I heard the great waves break and roar; <br />The sun was on my face. <br /> <br />My idle hands and fingers brown <br />Played with the pebbles grey; <br />The waves came up, the waves went down, <br />Most thundering and gay. <br /> <br />The pebbles, they were smooth and round <br />And warm upon my hands, <br />Like little people I had found <br />Sitting among the sands. <br /> <br />The grains of sands so shining-small <br />Soft through my fingers ran; <br />The sun shone down upon it all, <br />And so my dream began: <br /> <br />How all of this had been before; <br />How ages far away <br />I lay on some forgotten shore <br />As here I lie to-day. <br /> <br />The waves came shining up the sands, <br />As here to-day they shine; <br />And in my pre-pelasgian hands <br />The sand was warm and fine. <br /> <br />I have forgotten whence I came, <br />Or what my home might be, <br />Or by what strange and savage name <br />I called that thundering sea. <br /> <br />I only know the sun shone down <br />As still it shines to-day, <br />And in my fingers long and brown <br />The little pebbles lay.<br /><br />Frances Darwin Cornford<br /><br />http://www.poemhunter.com/poem/pre-existence-3/
