Bliss Carman, et al., eds. The World’s Best Poetry. 1904.
IV. Sabbath: Worship: CreedThe Seaside Well
Anonymous
O
Backward had drawn its wave,
And found a spring as sweet as e’er hillside
To wild-flowers gave.
Freshly it sparkled in the sun’s bright look,
And mid its pebbles strayed,
As if it thought to join a happy brook
In some green glade.
Came rolling in once more,
Spreading its bitter o’er the clear sweet well
And pebbled shore.
Like a fair star thick buried in a cloud,
Or life in the grave’s gloom,
The well, enwrapped in a deep watery shroud,
Sunk to its tomb.
Remnant of wreck to save,
Again I wandered when the salt sea-tide
Withdrew its wave;
And there, unchanged, no taint in all its sweet,
No anger in its tone,
Still as it thought some happy brook to meet,
The spring flowed on.
Its heart had folded deep
Within itself, and quiet fancies led,
As in a sleep;
Till, when the ocean loosed his heavy chain,
And gave it back to day,
Calmly it turned to its own life again
And gentle way.
Deep from the nether springs,
Safe ’neath the pressure, tranquil mid the strife,
Of surface things.
Safe—for the sources of the nether springs
Up in the far hills lie;
Calm—for the life its power and freshness brings
Down from the sky.
Roll in its whelming flood,
Make strong the fountain of thy grace within
My soul, O God!
If bitter scorn, and looks, once kind, grown strange,
With crushing chillness fall,
From secret wells let sweetness rise, nor change
My heart to gall!
Afflict me like a sea,—
Deep calling deep,—infuse from source divine
Thy peace in me!
And when death’s tide, as with a brimful cup,
Over my soul doth pour,
Let hope survive,—a well that springeth up
Forevermore!
Long brood the deluge dire,
But life lies hidden in the depths below
Till waves retire,—
Till death, that reigns with overflowing flood,
At length withdraw its sway,
And life rise sparkling in the sight of God
An endless day.