Poetry Archives

Where river and ocean meet in a great tempestuous
          frown,
Beyond the bar, where on the dunes the white-
          capped rollers break;
Above, one windmill stands forlorn on the arid,
          grassy down:
I will set my sail on a stormy day and cross the
          bar and seek
That I have sought and never found, the ex-
          quisite one crown,
Which crowns one day with all its calm the
          passionate and the weak.

When the mad winds are unreined, wilt thou not
          storm, my sea?
(I have ever loved thee so, I have ever done thee
          wrong
In drear terrestrial ways.) When I trust myself
          to thee
With a last great hope, arise and sing thine ultimate,
          great song
Sung to so many better-men, O sing at last to me,
That which when once a man has heard, he heeds
          not over long.

I will bend my sail when the great day comes; thy
          kisses on my face
Shall seal all things that are old, outworn; and
          anger and regret
Shall fade as the dreams and days shall fade, and in
          thy salt embrace,
When thy fierce caresses blind mine eyes and my
          limbs grow stark and set,
All that I know in all my mind shall no more have
          a place;
The weary ways of men and one woman I shall
          forget.