From the Pier’s head, musing, and with increase
Of wonder, I have watched this sea-side Town,
Under the white cliff’s battlemented crown,
Hushed to a depth of more than Sabbath peace:
The streets and quays are thronged, but why disown
Their natural utterance: whence this strange release
From social noise, silence elsewhere unknown?
A Spirit whispered, “Let all wonder cease;
Ocean’s o’erpowering murmurs have set free
Thy sense from pressure of life’s common din;
As the dread Voice that speaks from out the sea
Of God’s eternal Word, the Voice of Time
Doth deaden, shocks of tumult, shrieks of crime,
The shouts of folly, and the groans of sin.”