The Hidden Tide

WITHIN the world a second world  
 That circles ceaselessly:  
Stars in the sky and sister stars—  
 Turn in your eyes and see!  
 
Tides of the sea that rise and fall,  
 Aheave from Pole to Pole—  
And kindred swayings, veiled but felt,  
 That noise along the soul.  
 
Yon moon, noon-rich, high-throned, remote,  
 And pale with pride extreme,  
Draws up the sea, but what white moon  
 Exalts the tide of Dream?  
 
The Fisher-Folk who cast their nets  
 In Vision’s golden tide  
Oft bring to light misshapen shells,  
 And nothing worth beside.  
 
And so their worn hands droop adown,  
 Their singing throats are dumb;  
The Inner-Deep withholds its pearls  
 Till turn of tide be come.  
 
But patience! wait—the good tide turns,  
 The waters inward set;  
And lo, behold! aleap, alive  
 With glowing fish the net!  
 
O Toilers of the Hidden Seas!  
 Ye have strange gain and loss,  
Dragging the Deeps of Soul for pearls,  
 And ofttimes netting dross.  
 
Flushed to the lips with golden light,  
 And dark with sable gloom;  
Thrilled by a thousand melodies,  
 And silent like a tomb.  
 
Fierce are the winds across your realm,  
 As though some Demon veiled  
Had loosed the gales of Spirit-land  
 To ravage ways unsailed.  
 
But still sweet hours befall at times,  
 Rich-lit and full of ease;  
The afterglow is like the light  
 Of sunset on tired seas.  
 
And worse, perhaps, may be the lot  
 Of those whose fate is sleep;  
The sodden souls without a tide,  
 Dense as a rotten deep.  
 
Pain paves the way for keener joy,  
 And wondrous thoughts uproll  
When the large moon of Peace looks down  
 On high tide in the soul.