The Garden of Years and Other Poems/“The Winds and the Sea Obey Him”

Who once hath heard the sea above her graves Sing to the stars her requiem, and on whom Her spell is laid of shoreward-sliding waves, Alternate gleam and gloom, In reverent mood and silent, standing where Her hundred throats their diapason raise, Hath found the very perfectness of prayer And plenitude of praise. Thenceforward is his hope a thing apart From man’s perplexing dogmas, good or ill; Deep in the sacred silence of his heart His faith abideth, still:— A faith that fails not, steadfast, humble, kind, Amid a vexing multitude of creeds That bend and break with every passing wind, Like tempest-trampled reeds.

The tide of man’s belief may ebb or flow; Its swift mutations, many though they be, He heedeth not who once hath come to know The anthem of the sea. From sages and their blindly fashioned lore He turns, to watch with reverential eyes The seas men fear serve ceaselessly before The God whom men despise! Through length of days and year succeeding year Earth’s strongest power serves Heaven’s still stronger one, And all the winds, in holy-hearted fear, To do His bidding run. Ah, likewise serving, restless hearts, be still, And learn, like little children, of the way— Secure in Him, Whose strong enduring will The winds and sea obey! , 1897.