Page:Poems for the Sea.djvu/19

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THE TWO TEACHERS.



Earth hath her firesides, where the truant heart
Comes back, to be forgiven, where the soft touch
Of mother, or of sister, lures the boy,
And tames his fierceness, where the unshap'd sound
From infancy's fair lip, doth move the soul
With thrill unspeakable.
                             But the strong Sea
Beareth no hearth-stone on his giant waves.
He scorns the cadence of the nursery song,
Nor with his erring children leaves a fault
For Love's fond kiss to shrive. The hoarse reproof,
The chronicle of wrecks; the lash of storms,