I hied me to the ocean-side; <br />Its waves rolled bright and high; <br />Upon its waters, spreading wide, <br />I gazed with beaming eye. <br />At last, at last, I said, is found <br />A charm to banish pain,-- <br />Here, where the sprightly billows bound <br />Athwart the heaving main. <br /> <br />The pebbly beach I wandered o'er <br />At morn and evening's hour, <br />Or listening to the breakers' roar, <br />Or wondering at their power. <br />Beneath their din I madly sought, <br />With ev'ry nerve bestirred, <br />To drown for aye the demon, thought,-- <br />But, ah! he _would be heard_. <br /> <br />He found a voice my ear to reach, <br />To pierce my aching breast, <br />In every wave that swept the beach <br />With proud, defiant crest. <br />And when the moon, with silver light, <br />Smiled o'er the waters blue, <br />It seemed to say 'There's nothing bright <br />O'er all this earth for you.' <br /> <br />Scarce half a moon have I been here, <br />Beside the sounding sea, <br />In hope its echoings in my ear <br />Might drown out memory; <br />Or might instil some vital life <br />Into this feeble frame, <br />Long spent and wasted by the strife <br />Wide-wrought against my name. <br /> <br />In vain, in vain!--nor sea, nor shore, <br />Nor any mortal thing, <br />Can to my cheek health's bloom restore, <br />Or clear my life's well-spring. <br />And yet there is a sea whose waves <br />Will roll above us all,-- <br />Within its vasty depths are graves <br />Beyond all mortal call. <br /> <br />With what an awful note of dirge <br />This shoreless ocean rolls-- <br />Bearing on its tremendous surge <br />The wealth of human souls! <br />----The Ocean of Eternity,-- <br />O, let its billows sweep <br />O'er one that longeth to be free, <br />And sleep the dreamless sleep!<br /><br />Frances Ellen Watkins Harper<br /><br />http://www.poemhunter.com/poem/lines-32/
