<h2><SPAN name="page26"></SPAN><span class="pagenum"></span>THE OCEAN OF SONG</h2>
<p class="poetry">In a land beyond sight or conceiving,<br/>
In a land where no blight is, no wrong,<br/>
No darkness, no graves, and no grieving,<br/>
There lies the great ocean of song.<br/>
And its waves, oh, its waves unbeholden<br/>
By any save gods, and their kind,<br/>
Are not blue, are not green, but are golden,<br/>
Like moonlight and sunlight combined.</p>
<p class="poetry">It was whispered to me that their waters<br/>
Were made from the gathered-up tears<br/>
That were wept by the sons and the daughters<br/>
Of long-vanished eras and spheres.<br/>
Like white sands of heaven the spray is<br/>
That falls all the happy day long,<br/>
And whoever it touches straightway is<br/>
Made glad with the spirit of song.</p>
<p class="poetry"><SPAN name="page27"></SPAN><span class="pagenum">p.
27</span>Up, up to the clouds where their hoary<br/>
Crowned heads melt away in the skies,<br/>
The beautiful mountains of glory<br/>
Each side of the song-ocean rise.<br/>
Here day is one splendour of sky-light—<br/>
Of God’s light with beauty replete.<br/>
Here night is not night, but is twilight,<br/>
Pervading, enfolding, and sweet.</p>
<p class="poetry">Bright birds from all climes and all
regions,<br/>
That sing the whole glad summer long,<br/>
Are dumb, till they flock here in legions<br/>
And lave in the ocean of song.<br/>
It is here that the four winds of heaven,<br/>
The winds that do sing and rejoice,<br/>
It is here they first came and were given<br/>
The secret of sound and a voice.</p>
<p class="poetry">Far down along beautiful beeches,<br/>
By night and by glorious day,<br/>
The throng of the gifted ones reaches,<br/>
Their foreheads made white with the spray,<br/>
And a few of the sons and the daughters<br/>
Of this kingdom, cloud-hidden from sight,<br/>
Go down in the wonderful waters,<br/>
And bathe in those billows of light.</p>
<p class="poetry"><SPAN name="page28"></SPAN><span class="pagenum">p.
28</span>And their souls evermore are like fountains,<br/>
And liquid and lucent and strong,<br/>
High over the tops of the mountains<br/>
Gush up the sweet billows of song.<br/>
No drouth-time of waters can dry them.<br/>
Whoever has bathed in that sea,<br/>
All dangers, all deaths, they defy them,<br/>
And are gladder than gods are, with glee.</p>
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