9.

A multitude noteless of numbers,
  As wild weeds cast on an heap: 
And sounder than sleep are their slumbers,
  And softer than song is their sleep;
And sweeter than all things and stranger
  The sense, if perchance it may be,
That the wind is divested of danger
        And scatheless the sea.

10.

That the roar of the banks they breasted
  Is hurtless as bellowing of herds,
And the strength of his wings that invested
  The wind, as the strength of a bird’s;
As the sea-mew’s might or the swallow’s
  That cry to him back if he cries,
As over the graves and their hollows
        Days darken and rise.

11.

As the souls of the dead men disburdened
  And clean of the sins that they sinned,
With a lovelier than man’s life guerdoned
  And delight as a wave’s in the wind,
And delight as the wind’s in the billow,
  Birds pass, and deride with their glee
The flesh that has dust for its pillow
        As wrecks have the sea.

12.

When the ways of the sun wax dimmer,
  Wings flash through the dusk like beams;
As the clouds in the lit sky glimmer,
  The bird in the graveyard gleams;
As the cloud at its wing’s edge whitens
  When the clarions of sunrise are heard,
The graves that the bird’s note brightens
        Grow bright for the bird.

13.

As the waves of the numberless waters
  That the wind cannot number who guides
Are the sons of the shore and the daughters
  Here lulled by the chime of the tides: 
And here in the press of them standing
  We know not if these or if we
Live truliest, or anchored to landing
        Or drifted to sea.

14.

In the valley he named of decision
  No denser were multitudes met
When the soul of the seer in her vision
  Saw nations for doom of them set;
Saw darkness in dawn, and the splendour
  Of judgment, the sword and the rod;
But the doom here of death is more tender
        And gentler the god.

15.

And gentler the wind from the dreary
  Sea-banks by the waves overlapped,
Being weary, speaks peace to the weary
  From slopes that the tide-stream hath sapped;
And sweeter than all that we call so
  The seal of their slumber shall be
Till the graves that embosom them also
        Be sapped of the sea.

II.

1.

For the heart of the waters is cruel,
  And the kisses are dire of their lips,
And their waves are as fire is to fuel
  To the strength of the sea-faring ships,
Though the sea’s eye gleam as a jewel
  To the sun’s eye back as he dips.

2.

Though the sun’s eye flash to the sea’s
  Live light of delight and of laughter,
And her lips breathe back to the breeze
  The kiss that the wind’s lips waft her
From the sun that subsides, and sees
  No gleam of the storm’s dawn after.