| Walter Murdoch (1874–1970). The Oxford Book of Australasian Verse. 1918. |
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| 141. Ocean |
| | | By Louis Lavater |
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| UNSTABLE monster, formless, vast, alone, | |
| How awful in thy giant impotence! | |
| Canst thou not—now—uprear that bulk immense | |
| And make a captured continent thy throne? | |
| Why surging round this planet’s narrow zone | 5 |
| Pursue a star with tireless vehemence, | |
| Yet falter at the feeblest shore’s defence | |
| And crawl into thyself and moan and moan? | |
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| We happier mortals when our flood-tide ’s o’er | |
| Shall ebb into the dust and there no more | 10 |
| Be vext with earthly harassment; whilst thou, | |
| Unquiet Ocean, thou shalt neither rest | |
| Nor shalt accomplish thine eternal quest, | |
| But moan and moan—as thou art moaning now! | |
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