by Rosamond Agnes Benham (1874-1923)

I found my feet from under me
Swept swiftly by that rushing sea
Of feeling, in the one high tide
That flows for most – that some outride
To reach the land again. But free
The waves came, and resistlessly
They bore me toward the depths that be
Far down unknown. Drowned men beside
I found my feet.

I turned, almost despairingly
And then, my gaze struck straight at thee,
Read love! in grey eyes clear and wide,
And earth and sky and ocean sighed,
And fell a calm, and suddenly
I found my feet!

– Rosamond Benham

~

Rosamond Benham, “There is a tide“, Bairnsdale advertiser and Tambo and Omeo chronicle, 9 Mar 1901: 1. Note: this poem appeared in four separate local papers over Fri and Sat 8-9 March.