Charles G. D. Roberts - Tides lyrics

Through the still dusk how sighs the ebb-tide out Reluctant for the reed-beds! Down the sands It washes. Hark! Beyond the wan gray strand's Low limits how the winding channels grieve, Aware the evasive waters soon will leave Them void amid the waste of desolate lands, Where shadowless to the sky the marsh expands, And the noon-heats must scar them, and the drought. Yet soon for them the solacing tide returns To quench their thirst of longing. Ah, not so Works the stern law our tides of life obey! Ebbing in the night-watches swift away, Scarce known ere fled for ever is the flow; And in parched channel still the shrunk stream mourns.