Classic Poem

Alone I stand upon this ultime verge
Of lonely reef. Before me, 'yond the bar,
Rolls the vast deep, illimitably far;
Behind me seems the solid coast to merge
In the unstable flood; and, like a dirge,
I hear the distant, melancholy roar
Of breakers booming on the dreary shore
Where, glimmering ghostlike, falls the dying surge.
Alone I stand upon the desolate shoal
Of Age, which is the level utmost bound
Of nature's mortal confine. Round me roll
Outventuring tides from this familiar ground
To what strange bourne? Alone, my listening soul
Of Death's dark ocean hears the sullen sound.