How silent are the winds!

O human beauty, what a dream art thou, that we should cast our life and hopes away on thee!

All round the room my silent servants wait, My friends in every season, bright and dim.

The sea! The sea! The open sea!, The blue, the fresh, the ever free!

I said that I loved the wise proverb, Brief, simple and deep; For it I'd exchange the great poem That sends us to sleep.

So mightiest powers buy deepest calms are fed, And sleep, how oft, in things that gentlest be!

How silent are the winds!