This poem was first published in 1925, in Selected Poems. blank O wither, like a shattered bark that glideth    Bereft of sail or oar, Wends't thou thy course? What god thy journey guideth    Unto what unknown shore? Dark are thy eyes with dusk of death, that dimmeth    Life's bright and radiant star, All heedless of the purple tide that swimmeth    Around thee and afar. Clasped are thy hands above thy breast, and folded    Within the clinging shroud; Upon thy lifeless lips the speech that's moulded    Is uttered not aloud. Withered the ornaments that sometime bound thee    When thou wert garlanded, Swimming and floating in the deep around thee,    Yellow, and white, and red. Yet thou hads't faith and highest hope, unheeding    The cynic's idle plea, In the next volume of Life's story reading    Thy soul's eternity. Ah! no my eyes, too, when the dusk descendeth,    Night's darkness will be sown. And where the purple river wendeth    Shall I set out alone. Poems index Alphabetical list of poems online