Moon

<SPAN name="startofbook"></SPAN> <h3 id="id00121" style="margin-top: 3em">THE MOON</h3> <p id="id00122">  My soul was like the sea.<br/> Before the moon was made,<br/> Moaning in vague immensity,<br/> Of its own strength afraid,<br/> Unresful and unstaid.<br/> Through every rift it foamed in vain,<br/> About its earthly prison,<br/> Seeking some unknown thing in pain,<br/> And sinking restless back again,<br/> For yet no moon had risen:<br/> Its only voice a vast dumb moan,<br/> Of utterless anguish speaking,<br/> It lay unhopefully alone,<br/> And lived but in an aimless seeking.<br/></p> <p id="id00123">So was my soul; but when 'twas full<br/> Of unrest to o'erloading,<br/> A voice of something beautiful<br/> Whispered a dim foreboding,<br/> And yet so soft, so sweet, so low,<br/> It had not more of joy than woe;<br/></p> <p id="id00124">And, as the sea doth oft lie still,<br/> Making its waters meet,<br/> As if by an unconscious will,<br/> For the moon's silver feet,<br/> So lay my soul within mine eyes<br/> When thou, its guardian moon, didst rise.<br/></p> <p id="id00125">And now, howe'er its waves above<br/> May toss and seem uneaseful,<br/> One strong, eternal law of Love,<br/> With guidance sure and peaceful,<br/> As calm and natural as breath,<br/> Moves its great deeps through life and death.<br/></p> <div style="break-after:column;"></div><br />