"THE TIDE IS OUT."
The tide is out; and faint and far The lessening riplets play ; A strange, swift loss of affluence falls Upon the sunny bay ; And strangled kelp and tangled weeds, And flat, wet wastes of sand, With gaunt white rocks and shallow pools, Disfigure all the strand. And yet, an hour agone I passed; What wealth of wave was here! With all its creeks and channels full, The bay lay broad and and clear ; Its fresh green isles seemed anchored deep, Lapped to their grasses' edge. And deep—a blue sea's secret—slept The weed and wave-worn ledge. O, ebbing tide, and naked shores ; O, shrunken, shallow bay ; How sharp and true the type ye bring, Of my soul's gauge to-day ! And yet, but yesterday I knew Its farthest banks were brimmed, And fair, green isles in amber light, On its still depths were limned. I deemed I drew, in thought and word, From unguessed depths of power ; And those dim depths flasht d bright with gems In that full-flooded hour ; But ah ! to-day the tide is out! Behold these tangled weeds ; These bare, brown shores and weltering pools, Keveal my spirit's needs, 0, fair, bright bay ! thy wealth of wave Wells not from thine own springs, Nor leaps it in from mountain heights, . Fresh as the morning's wings ; And thou who mark'st its ebb and flow, The truth is too for thee, The flood which fills thy deepest depths Flows from a far-off sea, 0, shoreless sea! 0, deep of love, Thou tide of life to me, Flow through the channels of my life With fuller tide, and free ! Ebb thou no more from out my soid ; Leave no low weltering shore; But grant through all my being's reach, A flood-tide evermore !
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Hawke's Bay Times, Issue 1556, 6 March 1874, Page 137
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294"THE TIDE IS OUT." Hawke's Bay Times, Issue 1556, 6 March 1874, Page 137
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