By the Sea-Shore

[ZaunköniG]

By the Sea-Shore

Here sit I, like some god of the old prime,
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 Omnipotence!