The River

I came from the sunny valleys

And sought for the open sea,

For I thought in its gray expanses

My peace would come to me.

I came at last to the ocean

And found it wild and black,

And I cried to the windless valleys,

“Be kind and take me back!”

But the thirsty tide ran inland,

And the salt waves drank of me,

And I who was fresh as the rainfall

Am bitter as the sea.