Charles Warren Stoddard

  • Cast on the water by a careless hand,
      Day after day the winds persuaded me:
      Onward I drifted till a coral tree
    Stayed me among its branches, where the sand
      Gathered about me, and I slowly grew,
      Fed by the constant sun and the inconstant dew.

    ...
  • Time cannot age thy sinews, nor the gale
    Batter the network of thy feathered mail,
        Lone sentry of the deep!
    Among the crashing caverns of the storm,
    With wing unfettered, lo! thy frigid form
        Is whirled in dreamless sleep!

    Where shall thy...

  •     o, when I hear at sea
        The water on our lee,
    I fancy that I hear the wind
        That combs my hemlock tree:

        But when beneath that tree
        I listen eagerly,
    I seem to hear the rushing wave
        I heard far out at sea.

  • Wherefore these revels that my dull eyes greet?
    These dancers, dancing at my fleshless feet;
    The harpers, harping vainly at my ears
    Deaf to the world, lo, thrice a thousand years!

    Time was when even I was blithe: I knew
    The murmur of the flowing wave,...