Shadows (Howe)/The Sea Voice
P from the harbor side,
Over the city's midmost hush of night,
Swells, like a flooding tide,
The insistent voice of some great ship,
Deep-throated, as a man of might,
Calling, perchance, new greeting to the land
Now safe at hand;
Or it may be with bugle at her lip,
Seaward she flings the first far-reaching cry
Of that vast speech of hers, whereby
She sounds her way from strand to strand,
Through ocean's fog and storm and mystery.
THE SEA VOICE
P from the harbor side,Over the city's midmost hush of night,
Swells, like a flooding tide,
The insistent voice of some great ship,
Deep-throated, as a man of might,
Calling, perchance, new greeting to the land
Now safe at hand;
Or it may be with bugle at her lip,
Seaward she flings the first far-reaching cry
Of that vast speech of hers, whereby
She sounds her way from strand to strand,
Through ocean's fog and storm and mystery.
Housed safe ashore, deep down
Beneath the mountain clamor of the town,
Never by day comes clear to me
That rough old voice of the sea.
Only in chance-caught silences men hear,
As if by night, the ages' tale,—
All are but dwellers by a shore,
Beneath the mountain clamor of the town,
Never by day comes clear to me
That rough old voice of the sea.
Only in chance-caught silences men hear,
As if by night, the ages' tale,—
All are but dwellers by a shore,
Mariners waiting their command to sail
Forth on the uncharted sea each must explore,
So strange a sea, so near.
Forth on the uncharted sea each must explore,
So strange a sea, so near.