Verses (Baughan)/The Unknown Quest
THE UNKNOWN QUEST
The pines stand up in strong tranquillity,
The smooth air sleeps like water in a well;
But rest comes never to this restless Sea,
Still heaving with the old incessant swell,
Still clamouring with the old incessant cry.
Thou hast no peace, O Sea! No peace have I!
Nought else is uncontent this happy day;
Even the sky, thy lover, full and tense
With palpable glee, forgets, and can be gay;
But thou rememberest! That unquiet sense
No sun, no windless weather may appease,
No calm allay that cry, and let it cease.
And thro’ that ever-importuning voice,
My soul divines and claims a sister-soul,
That, clothed upon with whatsoever joys,
Finds never freedom from the stern control
Of that same dark and irresistible Force
Me also driving on a chartless course.
I would not fling away my life, God knows,
But―should this rock lean over...should I fall,
Sink, rise...then feel thine arms about me close,
Feel this my life ta’en from me, once for all:
I. so I faced and found thatO my Sea,
To what a haven wouldst thou have guided me!
What craving, dost thou clamour day and night?
Seeking for what, can I desire life past?
Death! Death! within thy dark shall we find light,
And, ’mid thy void, our certain goal at last?—
Find, as it were, some once-familiar Breast
That will regather us—and so find rest?