The pioneer express. [volume] (Pembina, Dakota [N.D.]) 1883-1928, 1886-01-01
The Ocean.
Oliver Wendell Holmes.

OllNer Wcnucll holmes.
The ocean says to the .dwellcr on it's
shores
You are neither welcome nor I'M
welcome. l do not trouble myself
with the living tribes that come down
to my waters. have my own people,
an older race than yours, that grow to
mighticr dimensions than your masto-
dons and elephants; more numerous
than all the swarms that fill the air
or move over the thin crust of the
earth. Who are you that build your
gay palaces on my margin? i sec
your white faces rs saw the dark
faces of the tribes that came before
YOU. us shall look upon the unknown
family of mankind that will come af-
ter you. And what is your whole hui
man family but parcnthcsis in Il sim
gle page of my history9 The raindrops
stcrcotypcd themselves on my beaches
before Il living creature left its foot
prints there. This horseshoe crab |
fling at your feet is of older lineage
than your ADAM unless, perhaps,
you count your Adam as one of his
descendants. What feeling have for
YOU? Not scorn,--not hatrcd,-no
love.-not loathing. MOI indifference
blank Indifference to you and Your
affairs, that is my feeling, say rather
absence of feeling. rs regards you. oh
yes, | will lap your feet, will cool
you in the hot summer days, will
Dear you up in my strong arms. l VIII
rock you on my rolling undulations,
Ike Il babe in his cradle. Am | Mt
| l.0 I Is,
harmless? But bark! The wind i.
rising. and the wind and are rough
playmates! What do you say to my
voice now9 Do you see my foamins
lips? DO :, on feel the rocks trcmble
as my great pillows crash against
them? Is not my anger terrible rs l
dash your argosy, your thun-
der bearing frigatc. into frag-
mcnts, as you would crack an cgg-
she'll? No. not anger; deaf. blind, I'M
needing indiii'crcncc,-that is all. Out
OF me all things arose; sooner or later
into me all things subside. All changes
around me; change not. look not
Il you vain mainland III your frail tran
STORY concerns. save in momcntary
.limpsrS. look on the white face of
my dead mistress. whom | follow us
the bridegroom follows the bier of
her who has changed her nuptal raj
ment for the shroud.
I'VE whose thoughts are of eternity
come dwell at my side. Continents
and isles grow old, and vase and dis
appear. The hardest rock crlmblcs;
vegetable and animal kingdoms come
into being, WAN great. decline and per-
ish. TO give way to others. even as hui
man dynasties and nations and races
come and 60. Look on me. Time
writes no wrinkle Oil my forehead
Listen 10 me! All tongues are spoken
on my shores, bu. have Only one lam
gnagc: the winds taught me their VOW
els: the crags and the sands schoolcd
me in my rough or smooth consonants.
Few words are mine, hut have whis-
percd them and sung them and shout
ed them to men of all tribes from the
time when the first wild wandcrcr
>trayed into my awful presence. Have
you grief that gnaws at your heart
strings Come with it to my shore,
as Of old the priest of far-darting Apol-
10 carried his rage and anguish to the
margin of the loEd-roarny sea. There,
if anywhere, you will for &c: your pri-
waite and short-livcd woe. for my voice
speaks to the infinite and the eternal
i'll your consciousness.