George Willis Cooke, comp. The Poets of Transcendentalism: An Anthology. 1903.
My LifeHenry David Thoreau (18171862)
M
As near the ocean’s edge as I can go;
My tardy steps its waves sometimes o’erreach,
Sometimes I stay to let them overflow.
To place my gains beyond the reach of tides,
Each smoother pebble, and each shell more rare,
Which Ocean kindly to my hand confides.
They scorn the strand who sail upon the sea;
Yet oft I think the ocean they ’ve sailed o’er
Is deeper known upon the strand to me.
Its deeper waves cast up no pearls to view;
Along the shore my hand is on its pulse,
And I converse with many a shipwrecked crew.