As the marsh-hen secretly builds on the watery sod,
Behold I will build me a nest on the greatness of God:
I will fly in the greatness of God as the marsh-hen flies
In the freedom that fills all the space ’twixt the marsh and the skies:
By so many roots as the marsh-grass sends in the sod
I will heartily lay me a-hold on the greatness of God:
Oh, like to the greatness of God is the greatness within
The range of the marshes, the liberal marshes of Glynn.
And the sea lends large, as the marsh: lo, out of his plenty the sea
Pours fast: full soon the time of the flood-tide must be:
Look how the grace of the sea doth go
About and about through the intricate channels that flow
Here and there,
Everywhere,
Till his waters have flooded the uttermost creeks and the low-lying
lanes,
And the marsh is meshed with a million veins,
That like as with rosy and silvery essences flow
In the rose-and-silver evening glow.
Farewell, my lord Sun!
The creeks overflow; a thousand rivulets run
’Twixt the roots of the sod; the blades of the marsh-grass stir;
Passeth a hurrying sound of wings that westward whirr;
Passeth, and all is still; and the currents cease to run;
And the sea and the marsh are one.
How still the plains of the waters be!
The tide in his ecstasy.
The tide is at his highest height:
And it is night.
And now from the Vast of the Lord will the waters of sleep
Roll in on the souls of men,
But who will reveal to our waking ken
The forms that swim and the shapes that creep
Under the waters of sleep?
And I would I could know what swimmeth below when the tide comes in
On the length and breadth of the marvellous marshes of Glynn.
_Charles Edward Carryl_
Charles Edward Carryl, father of Guy Wetmore Carryl (see page 142),
was born in New York City, December 30, 1842. He was an officer and
director in various railroads but found leisure to write two of the
few worthy rivals of the immortal _Alice in Wonderland_. These two,
_Davy and the Goblin_ (1884), which has gone through twenty
printings, and _The Admiral’s Caravan_ (1891), contain many lively
and diverting ballads as well as inspired nonsense verses in the
manner of his model who, in spite of the slight difference in
spelling, was also a Carroll.
C. E. Carryl lived the greater part of his life in New York, but on
retiring from business, removed to Boston and lived there until his
death, which occurred in the summer of 1920.