III

No man can understand the Sea, until

He knows all passions of the senses; all

The great emotions of the heart; and each

Exalted aspiration of the soul.

Then may he sit beside the sea and say:

‘I, too, have flung myself against the rocks,

And kissed their flinty brows with no return;

And fallen spent upon unfeeling sands.

I, too, have gone forth yearning, to far shores,

Seeking that something which would bring content;

And finding only what I took away;

And I have looked up, through the veil of skies,

When all the world was still, and understood

That I am one with Nature and with God.’

The Englishman and Other Poems · 第 21 / 71 题