Edmund Clarence Stedman, ed. (1833–1908). An American Anthology, 1787–1900. 1900.
By HerbertBates1590 Prairie
A
The dark swells billow heavily.
Are the looming ridges near of far
That heave to the smooth horizon-bar?
Sickens the heart and numbs the soul;
The thin wind gives no air for breath;
The stillness is the pause of death.
The home of man’s mortality,
A breathless vacuum of peace,
Where life’s spent ripples spread and cease.
Wide as the sea’s perpetual flow
Is its dead stand—dull wall on wall
Of sullen waves unspiritual.
Back to the pine-clad hills of home,
Back to the old eternity
Of placid, all-consoling sea.