Poems

<h2><SPAN name="SLACK_TIDE" id="SLACK_TIDE"></SPAN>SLACK TIDE.</h2> <div class="poem"><div class="stanza"> <span class="i0"><span class="dropcap">M</span>Y boat is still in the reedy cove<br/></span> <span class="i2a">Where the rushes hinder its onward course,<br/></span> <span class="i0">For I care not now if we rest or move<br/></span> <span class="i0">O'er the slumberous tide to the river's source.<br/></span></div> <div class="stanza"> <span class="i0">My boat is fast in the tall dank weeds<br/></span> <span class="i0">And I lay my oars in silence by,<br/></span> <span class="i0">And lean, and draw the slippery reeds<br/></span> <span class="i0">Through my listless fingers carelessly.<br/></span></div> <div class="stanza"> <span class="i0">The babbling froth of the surface foam<br/></span> <span class="i0">Clings close to the side of my moveless boat,<br/></span> <span class="i0">Like endless meshes of honeycomb,&mdash;<br/></span> <span class="i0">And I break it off, and send it afloat.<br/></span></div> <div class="stanza"> <span class="i0">A faint wind stirs, and I drift along<br/></span> <span class="i0">Far down the stream to its utmost bound,<br/></span> <span class="i0">And the thick white foam-flakes gathering strong<br/></span> <span class="i0">Still cling, and follow, and fold around.<br/></span></div> <div class="stanza"> <span class="i0">Oh! the weary green of the weedy waste,<br/></span> <span class="i0">The thickening scum of the frothy foam,<br/></span> <span class="i0">And the torpid heart by the reeds embraced<br/></span> <span class="i0">And shrouded and held in its cheerless home.<br/></span></div> <div class="stanza"> <span class="i0">The fearful stillness of wearied calm,<br/></span> <span class="i0">The tired quiet of ended strife,<br/></span> <span class="i0">The echoed note of a heart's sad psalm,<br/></span> <span class="i0">The sighing end of a wasted life.&mdash;<br/></span></div> <div class="stanza"> <span class="i0">The reeds cling close, and my cradle sways,<br/></span> <span class="i0">And the white gull dips in the waters' barm,<br/></span> <span class="i0">And the heart asleep in the twilight haze<br/></span> <span class="i0">Feels not its earth-bonds, knows not alarm.<br/></span></div> </div> <hr /> <div style="break-after:column;"></div><br />