In Conclusion

he gulf below, And watched the frightened screaming flocks Of sea mews, white as driven snow, Which swim through amplitudes of space Like thoughts released from mind's control, In vain attempt to faintly trace The mystic mazes of the soul. Like thoughts to sweep before the wind On steady wing, direct, alone, To search the pathless sky and find New courses through the vast unknown. And musing thus I looked below, Beheld the battle of the seas, And looking, longed in vain to know Of life and all its mysteries. The truth of things, of time and place, The purpose of this mystic scheme That holds our lives in its embrace, The motive of this living dream In which we act our written parts, Nor dare to drop from out the dance Though weary grow at times our hearts Beneath the heavy hand of Chance. chapter{Section 4I longed to know, and longing, knew I had no right to long to know, Yet willful thought would e'er pursue The underworkings of the show; Like some lost sea bird of the night, Would throw herself against the pane Where gleamed the golden harbor light, A beacon through the driving rain. Or like some spectral form would tread The shell strewn hallways of the seas Where roll the bones of ancient dead To time of sea sung melodies, And forms, undreamed by mortal mind, Go shuffling through the amber gloom, Weird, ghostly shapes that can not find Their sea tossed bones a quiet tomb. An...