The Garden of Years and Other Poems/“The Winds and the Sea Obey Him”

by Guy Wetmore Carryl

Who once hath heard the sea above her graves
        Sing to the stars her requiem, and on whom
Her spell is laid of shoreward-sliding waves,
                        Alternate gleam and gloom,
In reverent mood and silent, standing where
        Her hundred throats their diapason raise,
Hath found the very perfectness of prayer
                        And plenitude of praise.
Thenceforward is his hope a thing apart
        From man’s perplexing dogmas, good or ill;
Deep in the sacred silence of his heart
                        His faith abideth, still:—
A faith that fails not, steadfast, humble, kind,
        Amid a vexing multitude of creeds
That bend and break with every passing wind,
                        Like tempest-trampled reeds.

The tide of man’s belief may ebb or flow;
        Its swift mutations, many though they be,
He heedeth not who once hath come to know
                        The anthem of the sea.
From sages and their blindly fashioned lore
        He turns, to watch with reverential eyes
The seas men fear serve ceaselessly before
                        The God whom men despise!
Through length of days and year succeeding year
        Earth’s strongest power serves Heaven’s still stronger one,
And all the winds, in holy-hearted fear,
                        To do His bidding run.
Ah, likewise serving, restless hearts, be still,
        And learn, like little children, of the way—
Secure in Him, Whose strong enduring will
                        The winds and sea obey!

Swampscott, 1897.