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Sonnets Round the Coast

by H. D. Rawnsley
  

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 I. 
I. THE SORROW OF THE SEA.
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I. THE SORROW OF THE SEA.

Hast thou a ceaseless woe that cannot swoon,
Or in thy central depths, some bitter ache
Vexing thy heart and keeping thee awake,
That I, by thine unquiet roused too soon,
Must walk thy headlands, spelling out the rune,
The scripture that thy flowing foam-wreaths make,
Whilst wild with grief thy body seems to shake
And heaves responsive to the sorrowing moon?
Each month thou reachest to the shore a hand
For sympathetic touch, each month in vain
Descendest to thyself to seek for cure,
But learnest ever how the pitiless land
Repels thy plea, and grudges all thy gain,
And how hearts inconsolable endure.