Page:Reuben and other poems.pdf/75



after day, thro’ following night on night, Whether ’twixt Blue and Blue, amid grey calm, Tempest, or chill disconsolating fog— Still thro’ void air, ’neath one continuing dome Of mute enormous sky—o’er plain on plain Of lonely, stark, uninterrupted sea— From circle to repeated circle of Mere space for ever changing, aye unchanged: Voyages on her solitary way The strong sea-worthy ship.

And she informs that void. The solitude She peoples, and to all that blank gives point. Her single presence wakes as to an aim, Touches, as tho’ to sense, the occupants Of that insensate world. The leashless waves Race at her side and follow at her heel: The virgin and clean air dwells in her sails, And seabirds, none know whence, sudden appearing, Hover, as round their mother, at her helm.