Poems (Shore)/Fragment

For works with similar titles, see Fragment.
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FRAGMENT
Lift thy head, despairing Creature! Passion's shipwrecked castaway;Reverently will pitying Nature Watch thy solitary way.
True, there's no one can restore thee, Out of Ocean's waste forlorn,That one fairy bark that bore thee From the country of the morn.
Through the dark and dreadful waters Let the scattered fragments go;Passion pitilessly shatters Many as brave a vessel so.
True it is, the priceless treasures Of thine early hopes are lost;Many a golden freight as precious To the greedy gulf is tost.
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True, the land whence thou art sundered Was a land of lovely things;Round the paths where thou hast wandered Many a happy wild bird sings.
Try another venture yet, Other lands and other skies;Load a stronger ship with freight Of a nobler merchandise.
And the eager toil and strife, In the crowd of fellow-men,To a glowing love of life Shall brace up thy hopes again.
1844.
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