Page:Dreams and Images.djvu/108

 Oh the wild wonder of the vast emotion Of the perturbed wave, That cries and wanders like the fearful ocean, Seeking, with none to save! In their wide agony the rapids roam, A world of waves, an universe of pain! The vexed, tumultous clamor of their foam Crying to God with agonized refrain, Where the sad rocks their quivering summits hide In the loud anguish of the refluent tide.

Yet, with a willingness that leaps to sorrow Swift run the ragged surges to the height, And from their pain is born a pure delight— The fear to-day, the snowy peace to-morrow!— Cleaving like darts their swift and silvery way With sudden gleams, and barbs of glittering spray, They hurry to the brink, and swift are lost In that stupendous leap, that infinite holocaust!

Oh Christ-like glory of the praying water That leaps forever to its mystic death! And from the anguish of that sobbing slaughter Lifts the clear glory of the torrent's breath, Where like a paean of rapturous victory calls The solemn jubilation of the falls!

O alabastrine priest—thy splendor spraying More lasting than the immemorial hills! O monument of waves, O undecaying While God's right hand thy flowing chalice fills! Under the transient world's astonished eyes Thou offerest abiding sacrifice!