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life is like a little island strand
 * Surrounded by relentless tides that sweep
 * Continually from the unknown deep

That stretches far and wide on every hand; And day by day I watch the glistening sand
 * Slip down into the reaching waves that keep
 * Their hollow moaning as they nearer creep

To swallow up the foothold where I stand.

And yet I seem, between the wash and swell
 * Of those dark tides that mark my life's decline,

To catch the sound as of a distant bell,
 * And see the gleam of lights that steadfast shine

Upon a rock-ribbed shore impregnable,
 * Where lodge, secure and fearless, souls like mine.