Classic Poem

Always I saw the light
Flashing like clean renown,
Beating up from the bay,
Just where the fields dip down,
And the road glides up to the tree,
And the stairs go down to the sea.

Strange! I should meet them there,
Just where the curlews call,
Bringing him up the stair,
Covered with crow-black pall,
When his face was dark with the sleep
That is slept in the lightless deep.

For now I know why the light
Flashes up where the fields dip down;
For the sea has a heart like night;
And it's true that the little town
Waits for its vanished ships
With a bitter cup at its lips.

And the low, sad cry of the wind,
And the sound of the ancient sea,
And the grief in the harbor bells
Comes out of the soul in me.