I STOOD upon the old Earth's breast and gazed
To where the seaward sand was gray with brine,
And heard a song-bird weeping in a pine,
Beneath the iron heaven, bent and crazed.
The sea was like an eye that death had glazed;
Amid gray light blown round the ragged marge
The fallen sun hung lustreless and large
And one thin trace of lifeless waters blazed.
I strove to feel God's pity for His men,
As, in the Galilean dawn, the love
Of Jesu widened on the human ken:—
In vain! I watched my fated evening go
Heart-broken beyond tears and round me move
The strength and sorrow of the life I know.