Page:Writings of Henry David Thoreau (1906) v7.djvu/193

1840] And earnest still I gaze and gaze again

Upon the selfsame waves and friendly shore,

Till like a watery humor on the eye

It still appears whichever way I turn,

Its silent waste and mute o'erarching sky

With close-shut eyes I clearly still discern.

And yet with lingering doubt I haste each morn

To see if ocean still my gaze will greet,

And with each day once more to life am born,

And tread once more the earth with infant feet.

My years are like a stroll upon the beach,

As near the ocean's edge as I can go;

My tardy steps its waves do oft o'erreach,

Sometimes I stay to let them overflow.

Infinite work my hands find there to do,

Gathering the relics which the waves upcast;

Each storm doth scour the deep for something new,

And every time the strangest is the last.

My sole employment 't is, and scrupulous care,

To place my gains beyond the reach of tides,

Each smoother pebble, and each shell more rare,

Which ocean kindly to my hand confides.

I have no fellow-laborer on the shore;

They scorn the strand who sail upon the sea;

Sometimes I think the ocean they've sailed o'er

Is deeper known upon the strand to me.