See also: Poems by all poets about sea and All poems by Thomas Carlyle
Cui Bono
What is Hope? A smiling rainbow
Children follow through the wet;
βTis not here, still yonder, yonder:
Never urchin found it yet.
What is Life? A thawing iceboard
On a sea with sunny shore;β
Gay we sail; it melts beneath us;
We are sunk, and seen no more.
What is Man? A foolish baby,
Vainly strives, and fights, and frets;
Demanding all, deserving nothing;β
One small grave is what he gets.