there suspended, or slowly crawling
close to the bottom,
The sperm-whale at the surface blowing air and
spray, or
disporting with his flukes,
The leaden-eyed shark, the walrus, the turtle, the hairy sea-leopard,
and the sting-ray,
Passions there, wars, pursuits, tribes, sight in those ocean-depths,
breathing that thick-
breathing air, as so many
do,
The change thence to the sight here, and to the subtle air
breathed by
beings like us who walk this sphere,
The change onward from ours to that of beings who walk
other
spheres.
1860 1871
ON THE BEACH AT NIGHT ALONE
On the beach at night alone,
As the old mother sways her to and fro singing her husky
song,
As I watch
the bright stars shining, I think a thought of the
clef of the universes and of the future.
A vast similitude
interlocks all,
All spheres, grown, ungrown, small, large, suns, moons,
planets,
All distances of place however
wide,
All distances of time, all inanimate forms,
All souls, all living bodies though they be ever so different,
or in different worlds,
All gaseous, watery, vegetable, mineral processes, the fishes,
the brutes,
All nations,
colors, barbarisms, civilizations, languages,
All identities that have existed or may exist on this globe,
or any globe,
All lives and deaths, all of the past, present, future,
This vast similitude spans them, and
always has spann'd,
And shall forever span them and compactly hold and enclose
them.
1856 1881
SONG FOR ALL SEAS, ALL SHIPS
Of ships sailing the seas, each with its special flag or ship
signal,
Of unnamed heroes in the ships — of waves spreading and
spreading far as the eye can reach,
Of dashing spray, and the winds piping and blowing,
And out of these a chant for the sailors of all nations,
Fitful, like a surge.
Of sea-captains young or old, and the mates, and of all
intrepid sailors,
Of the few, very choice, taciturn,
whom fate can never
surprise nor death dismay,
Pick'd sparingly without noise by thee old ocean, chosen
by
thee,
Thou sea that pickest and cullest the race in time, and unitest
nations,
Suckled by thee, old husky
nurse, embodying thee,
Indomitable, untamed as thee.
(Ever the heroes on water or on land, by ones or
twos
appearing,
Ever the stock preserv'd and never lost, though rare, enough
for seed preserv'd.)
Flaunt out O sea your separate flags of nations!
Flaunt out visible as ever the various ship-signals!
But do you reserve especially for yourself and for the soul of man
one flag above all the rest,
A spiritual woven signal for all nations, emblem of man elate
above death,
Token of all brave captains and all intrepid sailors and mates,
And all that went down doing their duty,
Reminiscent of them, twined from all intrepid captains
young or old,
A pennant universal, subtly waving all time, o'er all brave
sailors,
All seas, all ships.
1873 1881
PATROLING BARNEGAT
Wild, wild the storm, and the sea high running,
Steady the roar of the gale, with incessant undertone
muttering,
Shouts of demoniac laughter fitfully piercing and pealing,
Waves, air, midnight, their savagest
trinity lashing,
Out in the shadows there milk-white combs careering,
On beachy slush and sand spirts
of snow fierce slanting,
Where through the murk the easterly death-wind breasting,
Through cutting swirl
and spray watchful and firm advancing,
(That in the distance! is that a wreck? is the red signal
flaring?)
Slush
and sand of the beach tireless till daylight wending,
Steadily, slowly, through hoarse roar never remitting,
Along
the midnight edge by those milk-white combs careering,
A group of dim, weird forms, struggling, the
night confronting,
That savage trinity warily watching.
1880 1881
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