II.

Take heed: for the tide of time is risen:

It is full not yet, though now so high

That spirits and hopes long pent in prison

Feel round them a sense of freedom nigh,

And a savour keen and sweet of brine and billow,

And a murmur deep and strong of deepening strength.

Though the watchman dream, with sloth or pride for pillow,

And the night be long, not endless is its length.

From the springs of dawn, from clouds that sever

From the equal heavens and the eastward sea,

The witness comes that endures for ever,

Till men be brethren and thralls be free.

A Midsummer Holiday and Other Poems · 第 122 / 129 题