Classic Poem

" What see'st thou, friend?
The frail masts bend,
Thy ship reels wildly on the tossing deep;
Thy fearless eyes
Regard the skies
And this broad waste wherethrough white chargers leap;
See'st thou the foam? "
Pilot. — " I see my home,
And children on a white soft couch asleep. "

" What see'st thou, friend?
The tiller-end
Thou graspest safely in thy firm strong grip;
Thine eyes are strange,
They seem to range
Beyond sea, sky, and cloud, and struggling ship,
Beyond the foam. "
Pilot. — " I see my home, —
Brown cottage-eaves round which the swallows dip. "

" What see'st thou, friend?
Black leagues extend
On all sides round about thy bark and thee;
Not one star-speck
Above the deck
Abates the darkness of the midnight sea;
The waves' throats roar — "
Pilot. — " I see the shore,
And eyes that plead with God for mine and me. "