Far Away

Upon the shore
Of evermore
We sport like children at their play,
And gather shells
Where sinks and swells
The mighty sea from far away.

Upon that beach
Nor voice, nor speech
Doth things intelligible say,
But through our souls
A whisper rolls
That comes to us from far away

Into our ears
The voice of years
Comes deeper, deeper day by day,
We stoop to hear,
As it draws near,
Its awfulness from far away.

At what it tells
We drop the shells
We were so full of yesterday;
And pick no more
Upon that shore,
But dream of brighter far away.

And o'er that tide
Far out and wide
The yearnings of our souls do stray,
We long to go
We do not know
Where it may be — but far away.

The mighty deep
Doth slowly creep
Up on the shore where we did play,
The very sand,
Where we did stand
A moment since, swept far away.

Our play-mates all,
Beyond our call,
Are passing hence, as we too may,
Unto that shore
Of evermore
Beyond the boundless far away.

We'll trust the wave
And Him to save,
Beneath whose feet as marble lay
The rolling deep,
For He can keep
Our souls in that dim far away.

The waters roar
From shore to shore,
He calls us, and we cannot stay,
Soon shall we see
Eternally
The Land that's very far away.