Page:A New Zealand verse (1906).pdf/120
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The Ship and the Sea.
To South and East and North the screws are singing, So steadily and tunefully and slow,But on the Western Track they thunder, flingingTheir wake afoam, and by their roar and ringing— By laughter sweet, deep in my heart, I knowThat down that Red West Road, with big screws swinging, Some day I’ll go.
XLVIII.
The Ship and the Sea.
Day after day, thro’ following night on night,Whether ’twixt Blue and Blue, amid gray calm,Tempest, or chill disconsolating fog—Still thro’ void air, ’neath one continuing domeOf mute enormous sky—o’er plain on plainOf lonely, stark, uninterrupted sea—From circle to repeated circle ofMere space for ever changing, aye unchanged:Voyages on her solitary wayThe strong seaworthy ship.
And she informs that void. The solitudeShe peoples, and to all that blank gives point.Her single presence wakes as to an aim,Touches, as tho’ to sense, the occupantsOf that insensate world. The leashless wavesRace at her side and follow at her heel:The virgin and clean air dwells in her sails,And sea-birds, none know whence, sudden appearing,