This page has been validated.
PEBBLES
Or is it better, high and dry
Out of the great sea’s reach to lie?
Night by night and day by day
From the wild waves hid away:
On a landward ledge to stay,
Never fretted, jostled, hurl’d
With a jarring crash,
And a sharp splash,
From the surety and the peace
Of your never-changing world:
Comfortable, safe, at ease:
—Sore to the eye, sharp to the hand,
Stark upon the weary strand
Like bleach’d bones in an unslaked land?
85
