Tears by Walt Whitman

Tears! tears! tears! / In the night, in solitude, tears; / On the white shore dripping, dripping, sucked in by the sand; / Tears -- not a star shining -- all dark and desolate; / Moist tears from the eyes of a muffled head: / -- O who is that ghost? -- that form in the dark, with tears? / What shapeless lump is that, bent, crouched there on the sand? / Streaming tears -- sobbing tears -- throes, choked with wild cries; / O storm, embodied, rising, careering, with swift steps along the beach; / O wild and dismal night-storm, with wind! O belching and desperate! / O shade, so sedate and decorous by day, with calm countenance and regulated pace; / But away, at night, as you fly, none looking -- O then the unloosened ocean / Of tears! tears! tears!