1 All night long the water is crying to me.
2 Unresting water, there shall never be rest.
3 As the water all night long is crying to me.
4 Long they stood together, peering over the gray unresting water.
5 Here and there a man has raised his head above these murky waters.
6 The road ran down the bed of a stream; the sun laughed and the water jingled, and we rode on.
7 Then there is the song of many waters, "Roll, Jordan, roll," a mighty chorus with minor cadences.
8 Then comes the pool; pendent gray moss and brackish waters appear, and forests filled with wildfowl.
9 And his heart sank below the waters, even as the sea-sand sinks by the shores of Altamaha, only to be lifted aloft again with that last ethereal wail of the swan that quivered and faded away into the sky.
10 Once, they say, even Atlanta slept dull and drowsy at the foot-hills of the Alleghanies, until the iron baptism of war awakened her with its sullen waters, aroused and maddened her, and left her listening to the sea.
11 Out of the temptation of Hate, and burned by the fire of Despair, triumphant over Doubt, and steeled by Sacrifice against Humiliation, he turned at last home across the waters, humble and strong, gentle and determined.
12 He came to us from Altamaha, away down there beneath the gnarled oaks of Southeastern Georgia, where the sea croons to the sands and the sands listen till they sink half drowned beneath the waters, rising only here and there in long, low islands.
13 So dawned the time of Sturm und Drang: storm and stress to-day rocks our little boat on the mad waters of the world-sea; there is within and without the sound of conflict, the burning of body and rending of soul; inspiration strives with doubt, and faith with vain questionings.
14 From the shimmering swirl of waters where many, many thoughts ago the slave-ship first saw the square tower of Jamestown, have flowed down to our day three streams of thinking: one swollen from the larger world here and overseas, saying, the multiplying of human wants in culture-lands calls for the world-wide cooperation of men in satisfying them.