Henry Wadsworth Longfellow, ed. Poems of Places: An Anthology in 31 Volumes.
America: Vols. XXV–XXIX. 1876–79.
In the Sea
By Hiram RichT
As it blew a year ago,
When twenty boats were crushed among
The rocks of Norman’s Woe.
’T was dark then; ’t is light now,
And the sails are leaning low.
And find a face not his,
And hope another tide will be
More pitying than this.
The wind turns; the tide turns:
They take what hope there is.
With all its sweetness spilled:
My God! why should one heart of two
Beat on, when one is stilled?
Through heart-wreck or home-wreck
Thy happy sparrows build.
Whatever winds may blow;
If blight be in the wheat one year,
We trust again, and sow,
Though grief comes, and changes
The sunshine into snow.
The summers bloom and go.
The sea withholds my dead: I walk
The bar, when tides are low,
And wonder the grave-grass
Can have the heart to grow.
And keep my dead below:
Though night, O utter night! my soul,
Delude thee long, I know,
Or Life comes, or Death comes,
God leads the eternal flow.