Poems (Gifford)/Seaside Musings

by Elizabeth Gifford

SEASIDE MUSINGS.

Oh! what an untold sense of boundlessness
Comes to our spirits as we gaze on thee,
Thou grand mysterious ocean! What high thoughts
Of power unmeasured, of unrivalled skill,
And wisdom infinite! We stand amazed,
Our soul is awed within us, our vain pride
Shrinks in thy presence into nothingness,
As the dull taper in the cloudless noon.
Yet with it all there comes a mighty sense
Of freedom and delight, and fires the soul,
Till it would almost seem that time were spent,
And nought withheld us from eternity.

And oh, what loftier emotions still
Are stirred within us! Oh, what ecstasies
Of love, and hope, and joy expand our hearts,
As, standing on the far, far stretching verge
Of thy vast field of waters, we look off
To yet another ocean, broad and deep
Beyond our utmost ken. It girds our globe
From pole to pole, from east to farthest west,
And we like little children on the shore
Dip in our tiny buckets and rejoice
To catch some drops of the o'erwhelming flood.
But oh! we long to reach maturer years,
When we may plunge into its wondrous depths,
Or launch upon the tide and sail away,
Content, yea glad, to lose our sight of land,
Borne on the sea of God's unfathomed love.