Poems Sigourney 1834/To the Ocean
TO THE OCEAN.
Hail, glorious Ocean! In thy calm repose
Majestic like a king. The emerald isles
Sleep on thy breast, as though with matron care
Thou in a robe of light didst cradle them,
Hushing the gales that might disturb their rest.
Those chastened waves that in rotation throng
To kiss their chain of sand, methinks they seem
Like pensive teachers, or like eloquent types
Of the brief tenure of terrestrial joy.
Though roused to sudden anger, thou dost change
Thy countenance, and armed with terror, toss
Man's floating castles to the fiery skies:
Yet still thou art his friend. Thy mystic spell
Looseneth the tie of kindred, lures his feet
From earth's green pastures to the slippery shrouds,
Weans his bold spirit from the parent hearth,
Till by the rough and perilous baptism bronzed,
Thou art his priest, his home.
With toil and change
Creation labours. Streams their beds forsake,
Strong mountains moulder—the eternal hills
Leap from their firm foundations—planets fall;
But age thy fearful forehead furroweth not.
Earth's bosom bleeds beneath her warring sons,
The tempest scathes her with a foot of flame,
And her bloom withers; but what eye may trace
Where haughtiest navies poured their hostile wrath
Into thy breast, or the storm-spirit dashed
Thy salt tears to the sky? What hand hath reared
Upon thy ever-heaving pedestal
One monumental fane to those who sleep
Within thy cloistered chambers? Myriads there,
Wrapped in the tangled sea-fan's gorgeous shroud,
On thy pearl pavement find their sepulchre.
Earth strictly questioned for these absent ones,
Her beautiful, her brave, her innocent;
But thou, in thy unyielding silence gave
No tidings of them, and despotic bade
Beauty and Death, like rival kings, divide
Thy secret realm.
Mysterious Deep, farewell!
I turn from thy companionship. But lo,
Thy voice doth follow me. 'Mid lonely bower,
Or twilight dream, or wakeful couch, I hear
That solemn, and reverberated hymn
From thy deep organ which doth speak God's praise
In thunder, night and day.
Still by my side
Even as a dim seen spirit deign to walk
Prompter of holy thought, and type of Him,
Sleepless, immutable, omnipotent.