Poems (Ford)/On the Shore
ON THE SHORE.
Oh, ocean, old ocean, majestic and grand,
Thy hoary beard sweeps the brown feet of the land,
And stern is thy voice in its roar;
Thy waves in their fury leap madly on high,
To war with the tempest that frowns in the sky,
Then sink with a wail on the shore.
Thy hoary beard sweeps the brown feet of the land,
And stern is thy voice in its roar;
Thy waves in their fury leap madly on high,
To war with the tempest that frowns in the sky,
Then sink with a wail on the shore.
We watch the proud ship as across thy broad breast
It beareth far from us the friends we love best,
Perhaps to behold them no more;
The deep, sullen voice of thy waves, as they roll,
Sweeps like a wild wail of despair o'er the soul
As lonely we stand on the shore.
It beareth far from us the friends we love best,
Perhaps to behold them no more;
The deep, sullen voice of thy waves, as they roll,
Sweeps like a wild wail of despair o'er the soul
As lonely we stand on the shore.
Oh, sadly we think on the cold ocean graves
Of those who have left us to cross the wild waves,
And sank 'mid the fierce tempest's roar,
But sadder it is to see loved omes from sight
Fade slowly and sadly away in the night
Of death, while we weep on the shore.
Of those who have left us to cross the wild waves,
And sank 'mid the fierce tempest's roar,
But sadder it is to see loved omes from sight
Fade slowly and sadly away in the night
Of death, while we weep on the shore.
Oh, dreary is life when all trustingly we
Send high hopes adrift over life's changeful sea,
That shoreward return nevermore;
And sadly we read in the world's chilling frown
That out in the tempest our hopes have gone down,
While we have kept watch on the shore.
Send high hopes adrift over life's changeful sea,
That shoreward return nevermore;
And sadly we read in the world's chilling frown
That out in the tempest our hopes have gone down,
While we have kept watch on the shore.
Our choicest heart-treasures are, day after day,
On Time's restless ocean all floating away,
The waves of oblivion sweep o'er;
And so too must we, when our life-work is done,
Go down, while the waters roll peacefully on,
Forgotten by those on the shore.
On Time's restless ocean all floating away,
The waves of oblivion sweep o'er;
And so too must we, when our life-work is done,
Go down, while the waters roll peacefully on,
Forgotten by those on the shore.
Oh, when the brief day of our earth-life is past,
And time, like a shadow, slips from us at last,
From earth may our freed spirits soar,
With white wings unstained by their fetters of clay,
And, borne on Eternity's billows away,
Find rest on a happier shore.
And time, like a shadow, slips from us at last,
From earth may our freed spirits soar,
With white wings unstained by their fetters of clay,
And, borne on Eternity's billows away,
Find rest on a happier shore.