Arthur Quiller-Couch, ed. 1919. The Oxford Book of English Verse: 1250–1900.
Ebenezer Elliott. 17811849588. Plaint
DARK, deep, and cold the current flows | |
Unto the sea where no wind blows, | |
Seeking the land which no one knows. | |
O’er its sad gloom still comes and goes | |
The mingled wail of friends and foes, | 5 |
Borne to the land which no one knows. | |
Why shrieks for help yon wretch, who goes | |
With millions, from a world of woes, | |
Unto the land which no one knows? | |
Though myriads go with him who goes, | 10 |
Alone he goes where no wind blows, | |
Unto the land which no one knows. | |
For all must go where no wind blows, | |
And none can go for him who goes; | |
None, none return whence no one knows. | 15 |
Yet why should he who shrieking goes | |
With millions, from a world of woes, | |
Reunion seek with it or those? | |
Alone with God, where no wind blows, | |
And Death, his shadow—doom’d, he goes. | 20 |
That God is there the shadow shows. | |
O shoreless Deep, where no wind blows! | |
And thou, O Land which no one knows! | |
That God is All, His shadow shows. |