| Carl Sandburg (18781967). Chicago Poems. 1916. |
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| 128. From the Shore |
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| A LONE gray bird, | |
| Dim-dipping, far-flying, | |
| Alone in the shadows and grandeurs and tumults | |
| Of night and the sea | |
| And the stars and storms. | 5 |
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| Out over the darkness it wavers and hovers, | |
| Out into the gloom it swings and batters, | |
| Out into the wind and the rain and the vast, | |
| Out into the pit of a great black world, | |
| Where fogs are at battle, sky-driven, sea-blown, | 10 |
| Love of mist and rapture of flight, | |
| Glories of chance and hazards of death | |
| On its eager and palpitant wings. | |
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| Out into the deep of the great dark world, | |
| Beyond the long borders where foam and drift | 15 |
| Of the sundering waves are lost and gone | |
| On the tides that plunge and rear and crumble. | |
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