Vast promise is the sea, and vast...

By Theodore Harding Rand

Vast promise is the sea, and vast

Its pain. Its secret is held fast,—

Now hope's wide open eye and sunny,

And now a weeping and wailing past.

( I have a grievance unredrest

That stings my heart and rends my breast,—

Perhaps it gathers in its bosom

The sorrows wild of the world's opprest? )

Deformity or pain unstrings

The music of the soul of things,—

Ah, suns burn bright in eyes of panther,

And lightnings leap in the eagle's wings!