Look in the Sea and Deep

 Human Nature
by Edward Doyle

The ocean, holding pure the azure's blue,
 Laughs at the tempests, with one empire's dust
 After an other, to round out Earth's crust.
 Ah, so does Human Nature hold the hue
 It takes from heaven, its conscience, and laughs, too,
 At madness, wrecking life and with its gust
 Forming new islands, where Pride, Greed, or Lust,
 Welcomes the crater's glare, in sun-light's lieu.

 Look in the sea and deep, what scattered rock,
 The islands which at dusk, the tempest piled!
 Ere rose a star, they sank with crews, beguiled.
 O Tempests that with world formations, mock
 The good Creator, how, as ye grow wild,
 Earth quakes and no live thing survives the shock.