A SOLITUDE.

Sea beyond sea, sand after sweep of sand,

Here ivory smooth, here cloven and ridged with flow

Of channelled waters soft as rain or snow,

Stretch their lone length at ease beneath the bland

Grey gleam of skies whose smile on wave and strand

Shines weary like a man's who smiles to know

That now no dream can mock his faith with show,

Nor cloud for him seem living sea or land.

Is there an end at all of all this waste,

These crumbling cliffs defeatured and defaced,

These ruinous heights of sea-sapped walls that slide

Seaward with all their banks of bleak blown flowers

Glad yet of life, ere yet their hope subside

Beneath the coil of dull dense waves and hours?