Eternity

O LITTLE waves, which kiss the sandsWith cool, caressing lips of foam,And murmurs soft, and outstretched hands,Like glad, tired children nearing home,O little waves, so soft, so small,How are you linked, if linked at all,To those mid-ocean billows strong,By fierce winds scourged and driven along,Tossed up to heaven, and then againSucked in black gulfs of whelming main;Never at rest and never spent?Urged by a speeding discontent,A seething strife which knows not ease,Are you akin to such as these?The little waves they flash and rise,And lisp this answer wonderingly,With laughter in their glancing eyes:“They are the sea—we are the sea.”O small, spent waves of surging time,Which break and fall upon life’s shoreWith soft and intermittent chime,A moment seen, then seen no more,How are you linked, if linked you be,To that great dark eternityWhich stretches far beyond our gaze,And rounds our nights and rounds our days?We see its darkling billows flow,But dare not follow where they go,Nor guess what distance dim and vastThey span to find a shore at last.O little waves, what share have yeIn this great dim eternity?The fleet waves answer as they run:“Or near, or far, one name have we,Time and eternity are one;It is the sea—we are the sea.”