Poems (Terry, 1861)/Here

by Rose Terry Cooke

HERE.

Sweet summer-night, beside the sea,
Cast all thy sweet life over me!
Thy silence and serenity,
 Thy healing and content;
The rushing waves that fall and break
Unutterable music make,
And words that no man ever spake
 Are to its measure lent.

The salt wind kisses into rest
Both languid eye and fevered breast,
The cool gray rock, with sea-weeds drest,
 Gives shadow, still with strength;
The bitter and baptismal sea
With living water sprinkles me,
Slow patience sets her bondsman free,
 And blesses him at length.

There is a time in every tide
When surf and billow both subside,
And on the outward current glide
 Both shark and pirate sail;
The shipwrecked sailor, cast ashore,
Perceives afar that lessening roar,
And gives one desperate struggle more.
 Ah! shall that struggle fail?