Hunt and Lee, comps. The Book of the Sonnet. 1867.
III. By the Sea-shoreHenry Ellison (18111880)
H
Just wakened into divine consciousness;
Like Neptune, when his great hand did caress
The Ocean’s mane first, at the dawn of Time,
Ere his dread name had passed into a rhyme!
Here sit I, while the sea with wavy stress
And emphasis, and utterance nothing less
Than epic, lends a voice to thoughts sublime!
Here sit I, musing upon things to come
Beyond all reach of mortal eloquence;
Till, unto that which had but struck me dumb,
The great Sea, giving articulate sound and sense,
Sublimes the mighty but confuséd hum
Into a voice as of Omnipotence!