amid the lightning-flash and thunder-cloud, In them, in thy experiences, had’st thou my soul, What joys! what joys were thine!
Aboard at a Ship’s Helm
Aboard at a ship’s helm, A young steersman steering with care.
Through fog on a sea-coast dolefully ringing, An ocean-bell—O a warning bell, rock’d by the waves.
O you give good notice indeed, you bell by the sea-reefs ringing, Ringing, ringing, to warn the ship from its wreck-place.
For as on the alert O steersman, you mind the loud admonition, The bows turn, the freighted ship tacking speeds away under her gray sails, The beautiful and noble ship with all her precious wealth speeds away gayly and safe.
But O the ship, the immortal ship! O ship aboard the ship! Ship of the body, ship of the soul, voyaging, voyaging, voyaging.
On the Beach at Night
On the beach at night, Stands a child with her father, Watching the east, the autumn sky.
Up through the darkness, While ravening clouds, the burial clouds, in black masses spreading, Lower sullen and fast athwart and down the sky, Amid a transparent clear belt of ether yet left in the east, Ascends large and calm the lord-star Jupiter, And nigh at hand, only a very little above, Swim the delicate sisters the Pleiades.
From the beach the child holding the hand of her father, Those burial clouds that lower victorious soon to devour all, Watching, silently weeps.