I

S AND-STONE surface, by the Ocean
Rippled over, hardening grew,
Wavy lines in wavy motion
That each other's course pursue;
Till that sand was ribbed and graven
As a floor by Nature laid,
On whose yellow surface paven,
Wind and light alternate played.
Then the rain-cloud, passing over,
Swirled its sleet-drops on the face
Of that tablet, till a cover
Of staid wrinkles left their trace
On its furrowed forehead, lining
Its red cheek with softening grace
With that sand-drift intertwining
Marks that time shall not efface

II

Then the myriad years rolled on;
Over earth convulsion came,
Changes wild of death and life
In their everlasting strife;
Scathed by the wild comet's flame,
Whelmed by waves, or rent asunder,
Or by earthquake, frost, or thunder:
Darkness shrouded, or light shone
O'er that fragment of a world,
Helmless through space blindly hurled.
Then, within our later age,
Rose a man with aspect sage,
Who, beneath the open air,
Looking round with thoughtful eyes,
Found those sharp fresh rain-prints there;
And he gazed with staid surprise,
And joy veiled in soberest guise;
Then, in phrase sedate and wise,
Showed how light a thing might give
The fixed impresses that live;
That the sand-grains' drift might be
A type of immortality.

III

Poet ! thus be thy endeavour
As the rain-drift from the sky,
Let thy verse fall heedlessly.
Do thy work, but do it well;
Know that which thou hast to tell:
Thy thought fathom to its source;
The quick fancy's reinless course;
The imaginative flight,
Whose throne is in the infinite;
Then forget thy song for ever!
Pass thou onward, be as not
Voice of passion and of power

Never sank in dust forgot:
Thou hast bodied forth the thought,
That with thine own life was wrought,
Nature's self as man doth crave
Resurrection from the grave.
Though thy slumber none shall waken;
Though thy race shall fade like grass;
Though earth's kingdoms shall be shaken,
Thy existence shall not pass.
On a day and on an hour
Shall thy rayless star be crowned,
Shall thy foot-prints thus be found
Be thy reliques such as thou
Dost not blush to harbour now!