13.

To descend through the darkness to grace them,
  Till darkness were lovelier than light: 
To encompass and grasp and embrace them,
  Till their weakness were one with his might: 
With the strength of his wings to caress them,
  With the blast of his breath to set free;
With the mouths of his thunders to bless them
      For sons of the sea.

14.

For these have the toil and the guerdon
  That the wind has eternally:  these
Have part in the boon and the burden
  Of the sleepless unsatisfied breeze,
That finds not, but seeking rejoices
  That possession can work him no wrong: 
And the voice at the heart of their voice is
      The sense of his song.

15.

For the wind’s is their doom and their blessing;
  To desire, and have always above
A possession beyond their possessing,
  A love beyond reach of their love. 
Green earth has her sons and her daughters,
  And these have their guerdons; but we
Are the wind’s and the sun’s and the water’s,
      Elect of the sea.

V.

1.

For the sea too seeks and rejoices,
  Gains and loses and gains,
And the joy of her heart’s own choice is
  As ours, and as ours are her pains: 
As the thoughts of our hearts are her voices,
  And as hers is the pulse of our veins.

2.

Her fields that know not of dearth
  Nor lie for their fruit’s sake fallow
Laugh large in the depth of their mirth
  But inshore here in the shallow,
Embroiled with encumbrance of earth,
  Their skirts are turbid and yellow.

3.

The grime of her greed is upon her,
  The sign of her deed is her soil;
As the earth’s is her own dishonour,
  And corruption the crown of her toil: 
She hath spoiled and devoured, and her honour
  Is this, to be shamed by her spoil.

4.

But afar where pollution is none,
  Nor ensign of strife nor endeavour,
Where her heart and the sun’s are one,
  And the soil of her sin comes never,
She is pure as the wind and the sun,
  And her sweetness endureth for ever.

VI.

1.

Death, and change, and darkness everlasting,
  Deaf, that hears not what the daystar saith,
Blind, past all remembrance and forecasting,
  Dead, past memory that it once drew breath;
These, above the washing tides and wasting,
  Reign, and rule this land of utter death.

2.

Change of change, darkness of darkness, hidden,
  Very death of very death, begun
When none knows,—­the knowledge is forbidden—­
  Self-begotten, self-proceeding, one,
Born, not made—­abhorred, unchained, unchidden,
  Night stands here defiant of the sun.

3.

Change of change, and death of death begotten,
  Darkness born of darkness, one and three,
Ghostly godhead of a world forgotten,
  Crowned with heaven, enthroned on land and sea,
Here, where earth with dead men’s bones is rotten,
  God of Time, thy likeness worships thee.