Henry Charles Beeching, ed. (1859–1919). Lyra Sacra: A Book of Religious Verse. 1903.
By Arthur Hugh Clough (18191861)Where lies the land to which the ship would go?
WHERE lies the land to which the ship would go? | |
Far, far ahead, is all her seamen know. | |
And where the land she travels from? Away, | |
Far, far behind, is all that they can say. | |
On sunny noons upon the deck’s smooth face, | 5 |
Linked arm in arm, how pleasant here to pace; | |
Or, o’er the stern reclining, watch below | |
The foaming wake far-widening as we go. | |
On stormy nights, when wild north-westers rave, | |
How proud a thing to fight with wind and wave! | 10 |
The dripping sailor on the reeling mast | |
Exults to bear, and scorns to wish it past. | |
Where lies the land to which the ship would go? | |
Far, far ahead, is all her seamen know. | |
And where the land she travels from? Away, | 15 |
Far, far behind, is all that they can say. | |