In nerveless immobility

As dust upon a wheel.

Some world material moved around,

Mazed breadths of spume and brine;

Strange voices spake as from a bound

Far off, I answered with a sound,

Nor knew the answer mine;

And sometimes like a weary hound

I heard the darkness whine.

In throbbing night 'twixt sleep and sleep

My tortured spirit heard

A wail that wandered down the deep,

A sorrow on the windy deep

Wail like a wounded bird;

And I wept as a haunted man doth weep

Who dare not speak a word.

Sometimes I sensed heaven's bellied gloom,

Storm like dumb and pregnant doom

Scowl on the waters wild;

Or tempest 'neath a plunging sky

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