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resembles thee; pacific yet dread, A level under the Infinite spread; It moves, 'tis immense, 'tis soothed by a ray, And kindled to wrath by Zephyr at play; 'Tis music or discord: sweet is its song, Or hoarse its shriek as complaining of wrong; Monsters at ease sleep in its depths dark-green; The water-spout germinates there unseen; It has gulfs unknown, 'neath its surface plain, And those who visit them come not again; It lifts ships colossal and hurls them down As thou hurlest despots. Black is its frown; The beacon above it shines like the light Thou hast from heaven, thy steps to guide right; It caresses and chides if soft its mood Or angry, but by no man understood Is its humour. Like the terrible shock Of armour clangs its wave on the rock; Night listens with awe to the portentous sound As it feels that, like thee, the depth profound Having roared at eve, shall destroy at morn, For the wave is a sword. Venus when born