Apprehension

From New Poems (1916).

And all hours long, the town	 
  Roars like a beast in a cave	 
That is wounded there	 
And like to drown;	 
  While days rush, wave after wave	         
On its lair.	 
  
An invisible woe unseals	 
  The flood, so it passes beyond	 
All bounds: the great old city	 
Recumbent roars as it feels	  
  The foamy paw of the pond	 
Reach from immensity.	 
  
But all that it can do	 
  Now, as the tide rises,	 
Is to listen and hear the grim	  
Waves crash like thunder through	 
  The splintered streets, hear noises	 
Roll hollow in the interim.