Classic Poem

1

Or, from that Sea of Time,
Spray, blown by the wind — a double windrow-drift of weeds and shells;
(O little shells, so curious-convolute! so limpid-cold and voiceless!
Yet will you not, to the tympans of temples held,
Murmurs and echoes still bring up — Eternity's music, faint and far,
Wafted inland, sent from Atlantica's rim — strains for the Soul of the Prairies,

Whisper'd reverberations — chords for the ear of the West, joyously sounding
Your tidings old, yet ever new and untranslatable;)
Infinitesimals out of my life, and many a life,
(For not my life and years alone I give — all, all I give;)
These thoughts and Songs — waifs from the deep — here, cast high and dry,
Wash'd on America's shores.

2

Currents of starting a Continent new,
Overtures sent to the solid out of the liquid,
Fusion of ocean and land — tender and pensive waves,
(Not safe and peaceful only — waves rous'd and ominous too,
Out of the depths, the storm's abysms — Who knows whence? Death's waves,
Raging over the vast, with many a broken spar and tatter'd sail.)