[{"node":{"title":"Greacen022","Collections":"Unpublished Poems","Contributor":"Greacen Estate","Coverage":"19 Jan","Creator":"Linen Hall Library","Date":"Wednesday, March 16, 2016","Format":"TIFF","Identifier":"Greacen022","Item Description":"Manuscript","Keywords":"By the winter sea","Language":"English","Path":"https://www.niliteraryarchive.com/content/greacen022","Publisher":"Linen Hall Library","Relation":"Linen Hall Library","Rights":"Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike CC BY-NC-SA","Scanned image":{"src":"https://www.niliteraryarchive.com/sites/default/files/Greacen022_0.jpg","alt":""},"Source":"LHL Archive","Transcript":"\ufeffBy the winter Sea\n\nWhat can we say to-day that is not negative?\nDo not and again do not. Thus failure to act\nSeems more commendable than a positive stance,\nHere at the foam\u2014edge of the pounding sea,\nGrey, neutral, dirty-specked, with March wind scourging it.\n\nAnd across the faded acreage of years the drums\nOf childhood beat themselves to death. 0 do not act\nLike frenzied drum-beaters, incensed by doom.\n\nEncased in winter despair may one still hope\nFor another spring, for a tunnel away from gloom\nFar below the crust of the earth, then out to a valley\nGreen in a haze of summer noon, gold fires ablaze?\nOr, not advancing, retreating sometimes, faith\u2019s crumb holding,\nMaking an effort to be honest about motives,\n(The Hamlet self, the double man ringed round by question marks)\nCan affirmation come, keeping at arm\u2019s length meantime\nThe lonely sobbing of this winter sea,\nAnd smothering that maddened drum-beat of a childhood\nLost long aeons ago on a Northern shore?\n\nDo not and again do not - wait, it will come!\n","Type":"Text"}}]