My life is like a little island strand
Surrounded by relentless tides that sweep
Continually from the unknown deep
That stretches far and wide on every hand;
And day by day I watch the glistening sand
Slip down into the reaching waves that keep
Their hollow moaning as they nearer creep
To swallow up the foothold where I stand.

And yet I seem, between the wash and swell
Of those dark tides that mark my life's decline,
To catch the sound as of a distant bell,
And see the gleam of lights that steadfast shine
Upon a rock-ribbed shore impregnable,
Where lodge, secure and fearless, souls like mine.