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I.—THE SEA.
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130

I.—THE SEA.

Creator and destroyer, mighty sea!
That in thy still and solitary deep
Dost at all being's base thy vigil keep,
And nurturest serene and potently
The slumbering roots of vast Creation's tree.
The teeming swarms of life that swim and creep,
But half aroused from the primordial sleep—
All draw their evanescent breath from thee.
The rock thou buildest, and the fleeting cloud;
Thy billows in eternal circuit rise
Through Nature's veins, with gentle might endowed,
Throbbing in beast and flower in sweet disguise;
In sounding currents roaming o'er the earth
They speed th' alternate pulse of death and birth.