The River

I CAME from the sunny valleys
     And sought for the open sea,
  For I thought in its gray expanses
     My peace would come to me.

I came at last to the ocean
     And found it wild and black,
  And I cried to the windless valleys,
     “Be kind and take me back!”

But the thirsty tide ran inland,
     And the salt waves drank of me,
  And I who was fresh as the rainfall
     Am bitter as the sea.