Classic Poem

Set your face to the sea, fond lover, —
— Cold in darkness the sea-winds blow!
Waves and clouds and the night will cover
— All your passion and all your woe:
Sobbing waves, and the death within them,
— Sweet as the lips that once you pressed —
Pray that your hopeless heart may win them!
— Pray that your weary life may rest!

Set your face to the stars, fond lover, —
— Calm, and silent, and bright, and true! —
They will pity you, they will hover
— Softly over the deep for you.
Winds of heaven will sigh your dirges,
— Tears of heaven for you be spent,
And sweet for you will the murmuring surges
— Pour the wail of their low lament.

Set your face to the lonely spaces,
— Vast and gaunt, of the midnight sky!
There, with the drifting cloud, your place is,
— There with the griefs that cannot die.
Love is a mocking fiend's derision,
— Peace a phantom, and faith a snare!
Make the hope of your heart a vision —
— Look to heaven, and find it there!