Teresa and Other Poems By James Rhoades |
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| IV. |
| V. |
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| VIII. | VIII
LONELY GREATNESS
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 | Teresa and Other Poems |  |
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VIII
LONELY GREATNESS
Unto the sea said God, ‘I thee create
Naked of all the kind air nourisheth;
Be thou tempestuous, terrible as death,
And bitter, and of man's life insatiate:
The melancholy wind be thy sole mate;
The lone moon vex thee, as she wandereth;
Yet shalt thou chide not for these things,’ God saith,
‘Seeing that for greatness’ sake I have made thee great.’
O man! if thou, too, from sweet helpful art
Be driven, and all the harvest of thine hand,
Fair hopes of fruitful promise, fall from thee,
Remember to be great; accept thy part;
Bethink thee of the waste time-sifted sand
And sovereign desolation of the sea.
| Teresa and Other Poems | |