Seaweed

    When descends on the Atlantic

    The gigantic

  Storm-wind of the equinox,

  Landward in his wrath he scourges

    The toiling surges,

  Laden with seaweed from the rocks:

  From Bermuda's reefs; from edges

    Of sunken ledges,

  In some far-off, bright Azore;

  From Bahama, and the dashing,

    Silver-flashing

  Surges of San Salvador;

  From the tumbling surf, that buries

    The Orkneyan skerries,

  Answering the hoarse Hebrides;

  And from wrecks of ships, and drifting

    Spars, uplifting

  On the desolate, rainy seas; — 

  Ever drifting, drifting, drifting

    On the shifting

  Currents of the restless main;

  Till in sheltered coves, and reaches

    Of sandy beaches,

  All have found repose again.

  So when storms of wild emotion

    Strike the ocean

  Of the poet's soul, erelong

  From each cave and rocky fastness,

    In its vastness,

  Floats some fragment of a song:

  From the far-off isles enchanted,

    Heaven has planted

  With the golden fruit of Truth;

  From the flashing surf, whose vision

    Gleams Elysian

  In the tropic clime of Youth;

  From the strong Will, and the Endeavor

    That forever

  Wrestle with the tides of Fate;

  From the wreck of Hopes far-scattered,

    Tempest-shattered,

  Floating waste and desolate; — 

  Ever drifting, drifting, drifting

    On the shifting

  Currents of the restless heart;

  Till at length in books recorded,

    They, like hoarded

  Household words, no more depart.

The lyrical form of this poem is aabccb.3. equinox: loosely, the region of the equator.7. Bermuda: west Atlantic islands eastsoutheast of Cape Hatteras.9. Azore: Azores, north Atlantic islands off the coast of Portugal.10. Bahama: west Atlantic islands southeast of Florida.12. San Salvador: island in the Bahamas, also called Watling Island.14. Orkneyan skerries: reefs, or rocky islands, of the Orkneys, north of Scotland.15. Hebrides: north Atlantic islands west of Scotland.35. Elysian: of the classical fields for the blessed dead.