Resistless fate and iron destiny
Are writ upon the tide—its branded mark.
It comes and goes heedless of wind or bark,
Nature's untamed and tameless energy.
So rolls the cycle of eternity,—
Days, months, and years—faint shadows on the arc
Within our human ken—rush from the dark
And speed return as God's own mystery.
I on this tide-beat shore, and clutching time,
Marvel of what account my selfhood's will,—
'Gainst timeless might time's impotence is laid!
And through my inmost soul, as at the prime,
A voice from out the awesome vast doth thrill:
"O man, thou art in God's own image made!"