To the Sea

Written on the Beach at Aldeburgh

Thou awful sea! upon this shingly beach
Of Aldborough I pace: my gazing eye
Thy world of waters lost in the dim sky
Admiring, and thy echoing waves, that teach.
In voice of thunder, more than tongue can preach;
The knell of ages passed and passing by;
And claim their ancient empire o'er the dry
And solid earth; each animating each.
Of towns long sunk, o'er which thy wild waves roar,
Of sea to land, of land to ocean turned,
I muse: and mourn, that who could amplest pour
Homeric tones on thy resounding shore
Porson is dead!—that sea of Grecian lore
Unbounded, in the abyss of fate inurned.