Resistless Fate

Resistless fate and iron destiny
Are writ upon the tide--its branded mark.
It comes and goes heedless of wind or bark,
Nature's untamed and tameless energy.
So rolls the cycle of eternity,--
Days, months, and years--faint shadows on the arc
Within our human ken--rush from the dark
And speed return as God's own mystery.

I on this tide-beat shore, and clutching time,
Marvel of what account my selfhood's will,--
'Gainst timeless might time's impotence is laid!
And through my inmost soul, as at the prime,
A voice from out the awesome vast doth thrill:
"O man, thou art in God's own image made!"