Henry Wadsworth Longfellow

To be left alone, and face to face with my own crime, had been just retribution.

To be left alone, and face to face with my own crime, had been just retribution.

Ah! vainest of all things
Is the gratitude of kings.

Ah! vainest of all things
Is the gratitude of kings.

And the hooded clouds, like friars,
Tell their beads in drops of rain.

And the hooded clouds, like friars,
Tell their beads in drops of rain.

I saw the long line of the vacant shore,
The sea-weed and the shells upon the sand,
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I saw the long line of the vacant shore,
The sea-weed and the shells upon the sand,
And the brown rocks left bare on every hand,
As if the ebbing tide would flow no more.

By unseen hand uplifted in the light
Of sunset, yonder solitary cloud
Floats, with its white apparel read more

By unseen hand uplifted in the light
Of sunset, yonder solitary cloud
Floats, with its white apparel blown abroad,
And wafted up to heaven.