HENRY I. TO THE SEA.
(1120.)
O sea, take all, since thou hast taken him
Whose life to me was life.—Let one wide wave
Now sweep this land, and make a single grave
For king and people. Let the wild gull skim
Where now is England; and the sea-fish swim
In every drowned cathedral's vaulted nave,
As in a green and pillared ocean cave,
Submerged for ever, and for ever dim.
And if the shuddering pilot ventures there
And sees their pinnacles, like rocks to shun
Above the waves, and green with tidal hair,
Then let him whisper that this thing was done
By God, the Lord of Oceans, at the prayer
Of England's king, who mourned his only son.
