Classic Poem

To-night dark seas and lands
Between us lie
And to taunt these graceless hands
Stern mountains high,
Yet to-night your voice from home
Most soft, most clear,
Over the gulfs hath come
Straight to mine ear.

Still chain'd between two poles
Must mortals move
Fronting with Janus souls
On war, on love?
Descend on them that steer it —
Our ship ill-guided —
Descend, sweet-counsell'd spirit,
On Earth divided!

Long since, in the desert's heat,
I swooned, I fell,
To find your love at my feet
Like the desert's well;
Now, loftier and more profound
Than the Dawn at sea,
Your spirit, like heavenly sound,