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Home  »  An American Anthology, 1787–1900  »  1634 By the Pacific

Edmund Clarence Stedman, ed. (1833–1908). An American Anthology, 1787–1900. 1900.

By HerbertBashford

1634 By the Pacific

FROM this quaint cabin window I can see

The strange, vague line of ghostly drift-wood, though

No ray of silver moon or soft star-glow

Steals through the summer night’s solemnity.

Pale forms drive landward and wild figures flee

Like spectres up the shore; I hear the slow,

Firm tread of marching billows which I know

Will walk beside the years that are to be.

Sweet, gentle sleep is banished from mine eyes;

I lie and think of wrecks until the sobs

And groans of drowning sailors, lost at sea,

Come mingled with the gray gulls’ plaintive cries

And those tumultuous, incessant throbs—

The heavy heart-beats of Eternity.